WAKE  FOREST  UNIVERSITY 

THE  Z.  SMITH  REYNOLDS  LIBRARY 


CALL  NO. 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 
in  2013 


http://archive.org/details/outlinesofhistor1907ammo 


Key.  JOHN  AMMONS. 


OUTLINES  OF  HISTORY 


OF 


French    Broad  Association 


AND 


MARS  HILL  COLLEGE 


From  the  Organization  of  the  Association  in  1807 
to  1907,  being  a  Period  of  100  Years. 


By  JOHN  AMMONS. 


Edwards  &  Brougiiton  Printing  Company 
RALEIGH,  N.  C. 


"Ex 

AJk 


INTRODUCTORY  NOTE. 

The  following  pages  is  but  an  Epitome  of  the  His- 
tory of  the  French  Broad  Association.  This  is  the 
hundredth  year  of  its  existence.  The  older  brethren 
have  passed  away ;  but  one  or  two  are  left  that  know 
anything  of  the  course  of  events  for  the  last  fifty 
years ;  should  these  pass  away  without  leaving  some 
record  many  valuable  facts  will  be  lost  without  hope 
of  recovery  ;  hence  I  have  written. 

Begging  pardon  for  the  imperfection  of  the  work,  I 
pray  that  it  may  act  as  an  incentive  to  the  future  his- 
torian, and  be  at  least  some  help  to  him  in  compiling 
a  more  perfect  history. 

I  commit  this  work  to  God  and  the  Brotherhood. 

The  Author. 


A  BRIEF  HISTORY 


French  Broad  Association. 


Western  North  Carolina  is  an  elevated  plateau,  situ- 
ated between  the  Blue  Ridge  Mountains  on  the  east, 
and  the  Alleghany  Mountains  on  the  west.  For  sub- 
limity of  scenery,  this  region  is  not  surpassed  but  by 
few  regions  in  all  the  world ;  it  is  distinguished  by  the 
sobriquet  of  the  Switzerland  of  America.  Switzerland 
possesses  the  advantage  of  its  snow-capped  peaks  and 
extended  glaziers,  but  for  variety  and  beauty  of  scenery 
Western  North  Carolina  claims  preeminence.  This 
region  embraces  thirteen  counties,  lying  almost  alto- 
gether, west  of  the  Blue  Ridge,  and  having  their  towns 
located  in  the  valleys  lying  between  the  Blue  Ridge  and 
the  Alleghanies. 

The  average  altitude  is  about  2,500  feet  above  the 
level  of  the  sea  ;  while  many  of  the  mountain  peaks 
rise  to  more  than  6,000  feet.  The  famous  Mount 
Mitchel  stands  sentinel  over  all  this  region,  towering 
to  the  height  of  6,688  feet.  This  is  the  highest  point 
east  of  the  Rocky  Mountains.  Just  where  the  first  set- 
tlement was  made  is  not  certain,  nor  is  it  definitely 
known  at  what  time;  but  it  was  not  far  from  1790,  and 
must  have  been  near  where  Asheville  now  stands,  and 
probably  on  Gashes'  Creek.  All  this  western  part  of 
the  State  lay  within  the  counties  of  Buncombe  and 
Burke ;  all  that  portion  lying  west  and  south  of  Toe 
R'ver  belonged  to  Buncombe,  and  it  was  sportively 
called  the  State  of  Buncombe ;  it  was  somewhere  in  the 


6  History  of  French  Broad  Association. 

State  of  Buncombe  that  the  first  settlement  was  made. 
James  Smith,  who  spent  most  of  his  life  in  the  county, 
and  who  died  in  Asheville,  was  the  first  white  child 
born  west  of  the  Blue  Ridge. 

With  the  first  settlers  came  the  preacher  of  the  gos- 
pel ;  the  pioneers  in  religious  work  were  the  Baptists 
and  the  Methodists — the  Baptists  taking  the  lead.  Set- 
tlements were  made  in  what  is  now  Buncombe,  Hender- 
son, Madison,  Yancey,  Mitchell  and  Haywood  counties. 
The  first  settlements  were  located  in  the  valleys  and  on 
the  principal  water-courses,  and  in  each  of  these  set- 
tlements a  church  was  soon  established.  It  is  not  defi- 
nitely known  what  church  was  first  organized,  but  this 
belongs  to  Little  Ivy,  now  in  Madison  County,  or  to 
French  Broad,  in  Henderson  County. 

Little  Ivy  was  organized  about  1796;  who  was  its 
first  pastor  is  not  known  to  the  writer.  There  was 
William  Turner,  of  whom  the  old  brethren  used  to 
speak,  but  little  is  known  of  him  or  his  work,  only  that 
he  preached  at  Little  Ivy.  David  Blackwell  was,  prob- 
ably, the  second  pastor. 

Prior  to  1807,  churches  had  been  organized  at  Little 
Ivy,  French  Broad,  New  Found,  Locust  Old  Fields, 
Cane  River,  and  Cane  Creek.  These  six  churches  were, 
in  1807,  organized  into  an  Association,  and  called 
French  Broad,  after  the  name  of  the  principal  river  of 
this  region. 

Little  Ivy,  Locust  Old  Fields  and  New  Found  were 
constituent  members  of  the  Holsten  Association  in 
Tennessee,  the  others  were  dismissed  from  Broad  River 
in  South  Carolina.  The  ministers  which  belonged  to 
this  body  at  its  organization  were  Thos.  Snelson,  Thos. 
Justice,     Sion    Blythe,     Benjamin    King,     Humphrey 


History  of  French  Broad  Association.  7 

Posey,  and  Stephen  Morgan.  None  of  these  were  men 
of  culture,  Posey  being  the  only  man  among  them  who 
had  obtained  more  than  the  bare  elements  of  an  Eng- 
lish education,  but  they  were  men  of  brain  and  brawn, 
and  what  counts  for  more,  God  had  put  them  into  the 
ministry — they  had  not  run  before  they  were  sent,  nor 
had  they  answered  before  they  were  called — they  were 
devoted  to  the  work  of  saving  souls. 

These  six  churches  were  the  leaven  in  the  meal,  dif- 
fusing itself  through  the  whole  mass  of  social  order, 
so  that  wherever  a  settlement  was  established  a  church 
was  planted.  In  a  few  years  the  number  of  churches 
was  greatly  increased.  Among  the  first  new  churches 
were  Bull  Creek,  River  Hill,  Flat  Creek,  Grassy  Creek, 
Middle  Fork,  Big  Ivy,  Roan  Mountain,  Hominy,  Old 
Salem,  and  Beula. 

These  churches  were  scattered  over  what  is  now 
Buncombe,  Henderson,  Madison,  Transylvania,  Hay- 
wood, Yancey  and  Mitchell  counties,  and  embraced  in 
their  membership  most  of  the  leading  citizenship  of  the 
country,  or  several  communities  in  which  they  were 
situated.  It  will  be  seen,  therefore,  that  in  these  early 
churches  religion  possessed  a  moral  grandeur,  such  as 
to  commend  it  to  the  hearts  and  consciences  of  the  peo- 
ple ;  it  meant  more  than  professing  religion  and  joining 
the  church,  it  meant  a  life  separate  from  and  above  the 
men  and  ways  of  the  world.  It  is  true  these  early 
Christians  labored  under  the  disadvantages  which  a 
want  of  education  and  general  culture  always  impose, 
but  they  were  characterized  by  a  rugged  honesty  and 
common  sense,  a  native  simplicity  that  made  them  scorn 
to  do  a  mean  thing;  they  were  truly    the  salt  of    the 


8  History  of  French  Broad  Association. 

earth,  a  light  in  each  dark  place  in  which  these  churches 
were  located. 

For  want  of  a  broader  information  and  culture,  ques- 
tions of  order  and  doctrine  were  often  arising,  which 
occasioned  confusion  and  sometimes  divisions.  The 
first  of  these  of  which  the  writer  has  any  information 
arose  in  River  Hill  church,  near  where  the  town  of 
Marshall  now  stands.  The  grounds  of  contention 
were  at  first  a  matter  of  discipline,  but  it  soon  took  a 
doctrinal  turn.  This  resulted  in  a  division  in  the 
church,  which  gave  rise  to  the  establishment  of  Walnut 
Creek  church,  and  the  old  church  finally  fell  to  pieces. 

This  disturbance  and  division  was  created  and  led 
by  Isaac  Tillery,  who  was  a  preacher,  and  at  the  time 
of  the  trouble  the  pastor  of  the  church.  He  became  an 
Antinomian,  and  finally  made  shipwreck  and  went  to 
the  bad.  Of  the  progress  of  the  work  for  twenty  years 
very  little  is  known,  as  no  records  have  been  preserved, 
and  the  only  facts  available  are  matters  of  tradition, 
and  much  of  this  is  not  reliable.  These  older  churches 
sent  out  colonies  to  form  other  churches,  and  in  a  few 
years  other  Associations  were  formed  in  the  territory 
occupied  by  the  original  six.  The  first  of  these  was 
the  Tuckaseige.  This  Association  embraced  the 
churches  in  Haywood  and  Macon  counties ;  since  then 
the  counties  of  Jackson,  Swain,  Graham  and  Cherokee 
have  been  created  out  of  territory  then  lying  within  the 
limits  of  these  counties.  Locust  Old  Fields  was  em- 
braced in  this  Association.  The  next  Association  to 
be  organized  was  the  Salem,  which  was  formed  of 
churches  in  South  Buncombe,  and  named  for  one  of 
the  oldest  churches,  known  as  Old  Salem.  This  body 
increased  till  it  became  very  strong.     During  its  day  it 


History  of  French  Broad  Association.  g 

embraced  in  its  membership  James  Blythe,  N.  P.  Corn, 
William  Mintz,  J.  C.  Owen,  Joseph  Blythe,  J.  H.  Duck- 
worth, Thos.  Stradley,  W.  C.  Berry  and  N.  Bowen. 

James  Blythe  was  an  able  minister ;  a  little  in  ad- 
vance of  most  of  his  brethren  in  point  of  culture.  His 
labors  were  principally  confined  to  South  Buncombe, 
and  what  is  now  Henderson  and  Transylvania  counties. 
Few  men  ever  had  greater  power  over  men ;  naturally 
impulsive,  and  being  filled  with  the  Holy  Spirit,  he 
preached  as  with  the  Holy  Ghost  sent  down  from  God. 
In  doctrine  and  spirit  he  impressed  himself  upon  his 
people  and  his  age,  so  that  he  had  more  to  do  in  form- 
ing the  character  of  the  people,  in  the  sphere  of  his 
labors,  than  any  other  person.  He  believed  that  Christ 
gave  himself  a  Savior  for  all,  to  be  testified  in  due 
time ;  hence  he  mightily  pleaded  with  men  to  be  recon- 
ciled to  God.  Many  souls  were  added  unto  the  Lord 
through  his  labors.  Other  leading  spirits  in  this  body 
were  Thos.  Stradley  and  X.  Bowen :  Stradley  was  an 
Englishman,  and  belonged  to  the  Gill  School  of  The- 
ology. His  views  and  his  persistent  advocacy  of  them 
gave  rise  to  controversy  in  this  body  which  for  a  num- 
ber of  years  operated  as  a  disturbing  element.  The 
next  Association  organized  was  Roan  Mountain ;  it 
embraced  most  of  the  churches  in  the  county  of  Yancey. 
Since  that  time  the  county  of  Mitchell  has  been  formed, 
and  embraces  most  of  the  churches  in  the  organization. 
The  leading  spirit  in  this  bodv  was  Stephen  Collis. 

Collis  was  truly  a  man  of  God,  he  was  happy  in 
preaching  the  gospel  of  salvation,  free  to  all ;  he  be- 
lieved in  God's  sovereignty,  but  also  in  man's  free 
moral  agency ;  that  God  proposed  to  save  all  men 
through  grace,  but  in  order  to  be  saved  men  must  ac- 


io  History  of  French  Broad  Association. 

cept  the  offered  grace ;  in  other  words,  the  gospel  is 
God's  power  to  save  every  one  that  believes,  but  that 
man  has  the  same  power  to  reject  that  he  has  to  be- 
lieve ;  he  therefore  urged  sinners  everywhere  to  yield 
themselves  to  God,  in  submission  to  his  will.  No  man 
ever  impressed  himself  upon  his  people  and  his  time 
more  than  Stephen  Collis ;  he  was  a  leader  among  men, 
and  the  people  followed  him  gladly.  Some  years  have 
passed  since  his  departure,  but  to  one  acquainted  with 
Elder  Collis  it  is  remarkable  how  the  Collis  spirit  lives 
in  the  lives  of  the  people  whom  he  led  to  Christ ;  he 
followed  Christ  and  the  people  followed  him.  A 
deeper  tone  of  piety  is  to  be  found  in  the  churches 
where  Collis  labored  than  is  to  be  found  elsewhere  in 
all  this  region. 

From  the  organization  of  the  French  Broad  Associa- 
tion there  had  been  more  or  less  questioning  about  doc- 
trines and  discipline ;  all  of  the  leading  spirits  were 
Calvinistic,  but  there  were  many  minds  that  revolted 
at  the  sterner  aspects  of  Calvinism.  Men  generally 
held  to  the  idea  of  moral  free  agency,  and  were  not 
able  to  see  how  it  could  be  true  that  God,  of  His  own 
sovereign  grace,  had  chosen  the  heirs  of  salvation,  and 
yet  punishes  unbelievers  with  everlasting  banishment 
into  the  lake  that  burns  with  fire  and  brimstone,  could 
be  a  merciful  and  gracious  sovereign,  seeing  he  had 
left  them  in  their  sins  to  perish.  These  questions  were 
taken  up  by  the  preachers  and  became,  not  only  the 
grounds  of  contention  and  strife,  but,  in  1827,  resulted 
in  a  division  and  the  organization  of  the  Big  Ivy  Asso- 
ciation. It  was  felt  at  the  time  that  this  division  was 
a  great  calamity,  and  it  gave  rise  to  much  bitterness 
and  strife — the  alienation  of  brethren,  so  that  there  was 


History  of  French  Broad  Association.  11 

not  a  community  where  its  effects  were  not  more  or 
less  felt.  The  principal  question  of  difference  was  the 
doctrine  of  Election. 

One  party  held  that  God,  from  eternity,  had  freely 
ordained  whatsoever  comes  to  pass,  that  Christ  died 
for  the  Elect ;  that  these  would  be  effectually  called, 
sanctified  and  saved,  while  the  rest  would  be  left  to 
perish  in  their  blindness.  As,  almost  always,  in  such 
cases,  the  parties  went  to  extremes,  those  who  advo- 
cated the  doctrine  of  God's  absolute  sovereignty  were 
often  justly  chargeable  with  being  Antinomian.  This 
was  the  result  of  ignorance,  the  advocates  not  being 
able  to  see  the  logical  conclusion  to  which  their  reason- 
ing led.  On  the  other  hand,  those  who  entertained  the 
opposite  view  often  found  themselves  floundering  in 
the  rankest  Arminianism. 

The  discussion  of  these  subjects  cleared  away  the 
mists,  and  after  about  twenty  years  the  differences  were 
adjusted  and  the  opposing  bodies  were  again  united. 

The  leading  spirits  in  these  disturbances  were 
Stephen  Morgan  and  Garret  Deweese.  The  Deweese 
faction  at  first  called  themselves  Free  Willers ;  this 
the}'  did  because  they  held  that  the  salvation  of  any 
one  depended  upon  the  self-determining  power  of  his 
own  will. 

According  to  this  view  God,  in  the  gift  of  His  Son, 
had  provided  the  means  of  salvation  for  all ;  that  this 
salvation  is  freely  offered  to  all  through  the  gospel, 
and  that  sinners  must,  by  the  self-determining  power 
of  their  own  wills,  uninfluenced  and  unaided  by  any 
other  power  than  th^gospel,  choose  life  for  themselves, 
and  that  those  who  do  not  thus  choose  for  themselves 
must,  as  a  moral  sequence,  perish.     This  was  the  ex- 


12  History  of  French  Broad  Association. 

treme  view  of  the  Arminians,  and  was  in  effect  the 
rejection  of  the  work  of  the  Holy  Spirit  in  the  work  of 
regeneration.  True,  they  did  not  profess  to  do  this, 
rather,  they  taught  the  necessity  of  regeneration  by  the 
spirit,  but  this  was  in  contradiction  of  their  theory.  All 
the  preachers  belonging  to  this  body  were  intensely 
evangelical,  they  went  everywhere  preaching  the  word, 
and  success  attended  their  efforts;  churches  increased 
in  membership,  new  churches  were  planted,  and  the 
doctrines  which  they  preached  were  generally  held  to 
be  the  doctrines  of  God's  word.  The  Minutes  of  this 
body  for  1831  show  that  it  embraced  seven  churches; 
while  the  Minutes  for  1848,  the  last  session  but  one, 
show  that  it  had  increased  to  twenty-five  churches.  The 
seven  churches  in  1831  contained  two  hundred  and 
thirty-three  members,  while  the  twenty-five  churches 
contained  seven  hundred  and  thirty-two  members. 

The  ministers  belonging  to  this  body,  the  latter  date, 
were  S.'Byrd,  J.  M.  Bryant,  J.  Midcalf,  L.  Buchannan, 
J.  Buchannan,  J.  Arrowood,  J.  Silver,  C.  M.  Philfips, 
W.  C.  Berry,  T.  J.  Rollins,  R.  Deaver,  Wm.  Deweese, 
James  Rhea,  Jesse  Rhea,  J.  Wheeler,  M.  Peterson,  J. 
W.  Aver,  E.  Chasteen,  J.  Gun,  L.  M.  Berry  and  Wm. 
Sprinkle.     Berry  and  Sprinkle  were  not  ordained. 

It  was  the  privilege  of  the  writer  to  know  most  of 
these  men.  J.  M.  Bryant,  W.  C.  Berry  and  J.  M.  Run- 
nion  were  men  of  some  literary  attainments,  while  L. 
M.  Berry  was,  for  that  day,  a  scholarly  man,  and  rose 
to  eminence  and  distinction  in  the  ministry. 

Most  of  them  were  noted  for  piety  and  for  zeal  and 
devotion  to  the  Lord's  work ;  and  dying  in  good  old 
age  left  their  work  to  follow  them  for  the  glory  of 
God.     The  Bie  Ivy  brethren   were  not  heterodox  as 


History  of  French  Broad  Association.  13 

they  have  been  represented,  they  were  sounder  than 
their  creed,  and  the  record  shows  that  they  were  truly 
evangelical.  They  were  charged  with  being  Open- 
Communionists.  In  their  vindication  I  refer  to  the 
Articles  of  Faith  of  this  body: 

1.  "We  believe  in  one  only  true  and  living  God;  and 
notwithstanding  there  are  three  that  bear  record  in 
heaven — the  Father,  the  Son,  and  the  Holy  Ghost — 
yet  there  is  but  one  in  substance,  equal  in  power  and 
glory,  and  can  not  be  divided,  either  in  principle  or 
practice,  and  not  liable  to  change. 

2.  We  believe  the  Old  and  New  Testaments  is  the 
word  of  God,  and  a  sufficiency  is  therein  contained  for 
our  instruction,  and  they  are  the  only  rule  of  faith  and 
practice. 

3.  We  believe  in  the  doctrine  of  Original  sin,  and 
that  all  mankind,  since  the  fall^  are  by  nature  the  chil- 
dren of  Wrath,  one  as  much  as  another. 

4.  We  believe  in  man's  impotency,  or  inability  to 
recover  himself  out  of  the  fallen  state  he  is  in,  there- 
fore a  Saviour  is  absolutely  needed. 

5.  We  believe  that  sinners  are  Justified  in  the  sight 
of  God  only  by  the  imputed  Righteousness  of  Jesus 
Christ. 

6.  We  believe  in  the  Perseverance  of  the  Saints  in 
grace — that  they  are  born  again,  or  adopted  into  the 
family  of  Heaven — that  they  become  equal  heirs  with 
Jesus  Christ,  and  that  He  will  raise  them  up  at  the  last 
day. 

7.  We  believe  that  Baptism  and  the  Lord's  Supper 
are  gospel  Ordinances  and  true  believers  the  proper 
subjects,  and  we  admit  of  no  other  knowingly. 

8.  We  believe  that  the  true  mode  of  Baptism  is  to 


^ 


14  History  of  French  Broad  Association. 

baptize  or  immerse  a  person,  by  their  own  consent, 
once  in  water,  back  foremost,  in  the  name  of  the 
Father,  and  of  the  Son,  and  of  the  Holy  Ghost. 

9.  We  believe  in  the  resurrection  of  the  dead  and  of 
a  General  Judgment,  where  all  will  be  judged  according 
to  the  deeds  done  in  the  body. 

10.  We  believe  the  punishment  of  the  wicked  will  be 
Everlasting  and  the  joys  of  the  righteous  will  be  Eter- 
nal after  death. 

11.  We  believe  washing  one  another's  feet  is  a  com- 
mand of  Christ  left  with  His  disciples,  and  ought  to  be 
practiced  by  His  followers. 

12.  We  believe  that  no  one  has  a  right  to  administer 
the  Ordinances  but  such  as  are  legally  called  and 
qualified  thereunto. 

13.  We  believe  it  is  the  duty  of  all  church  members 
to  attend  their  church  meetings,  and  it  is  the  duty  of 
the  church  to  deal  with  them  for  neglecting  the  same. 

14.  We  believe  it  is  the  duty  of  all  church  members 
to  contribute  to  the  support  of  the  gospel  and  defray- 
ing all  reasonable  expenses  of  the  church,  never  neg- 
lecting the  poor,  according  to  their  several  abilities. 

15.  We  believe  that  any  doctrine  that  goes  to  en- 
courage or  indulge  people  in  their  sins,  or  cause  them 
to  settle  down  on  anything  short  of  saving  faith  in 
Christ,  for  salvation,  is  erroneous,  and  all  such  doc- 
trines will  be  rejected  by  us. 

16.  None  of  the  above-named  articles  shall  be  so 
construed  as  to  hold  with  Particular  and  Eternal  Elec- 
tion and  Reprobation,  or  so  as  to  make  God  partial, 
either  directly  or  indirectly,  so  as  to  injure  any  of  the 
children  of  men."     Minutes  of  1838. 

In  1849,  aU  differences  were  adjusted,  and  this  As- 
sociation was  merged  into  the  French  Broad. 


History  of  French  Broad  Association.  15 

The  French  Broad  brethren  had  called  themselves 
regular  Baptists,  thus  insinuating  that  all  others  were 
irregular  or  schismatics. 

There  had  been  controversies  in  the  Baptist  ranks 
from  their  first  planting  in  the  State.  The  Kehuka 
Association,  which  was  the  oldest,  was  a  Calvinistic 
body,  but  it  at  first  had  belonged  to  the  General  Bap- 
tist, who  were  intensely  Arminian,  so  much  so  that  all 
that  was  necessary  to  obtain  membership  in  a  church 
was  to  profess  to  believe  the  Bible  to  be  the  word  of 
God,  and  abstain  from  open  immorality.  To  them  the 
new  birth  or  regeneration  was  a  great  mystery  as  it 
was  to  Nicodemus.  Those  who  protested  against  this 
state  of  things  separated  themselves  from  them  and 
formed  other  bodies,  hence  they  were  called  Separate 
Baptists. 

These  elements  of  controversy  had  gone  into  every 
community  where  the  Baptists  had  gone,  and  so  at  an 
early  day  they  developed  in  the  French  Broad  Associa- 
tion. Stephen  Morgan  was  a  leader  among  his  people ; 
he  was  a  man  of  a  rugged  mold,  physically,  intellectu- 
ally and  morally.  Was  a  man  of  strong  convictions  and 
decisive  in  character — a  radical  rather  than  conserva- 
tive. He  embraced  the  Calvinistic  views  with  all  the 
ardor  of  his  soul.  This  gave  offense  to  those  who  en- 
tertained different  views ;  and  as  these  questions  were 
agitated  they  gave  rise  to  contentions  which  resulted  in 
divisions. 

Just  what  Morgan's  views  were  is  at  this  day  un- 
known, but  he  held  and  taught  the  doctrine  of  Election, 
i.  e.,  that  God,  from  all  eternity,  chose  some  men  to 
Eternal  Life,  without  any  regard  to  faith  or  good 
works ;  that    these  would  be    Called,    Sanctified    and 


1 6  History  of  French  Broad  Association. 

Saved ;  that  the  rest  were  Reprobates,  and  were  doomed 
to  Eternal  Damnation ;  that  the  number  of  the  saved 
was  fixed  and  determined,  and  could  neither  be  added 
to  nor  diminished. 

These  differences  drove  the  brethren  asunder,  and 
the  bitterness  was  such  that  persons  living  in  the  same 
community  would  have  but  little  intercourse  with  each 
other. 

Deweese  was  charged  with  heresy,  or  false  doctrine ; 
and  with  the  assistance  of  Morgan  and  a  few  others 
from  other  churches  was,  by  a  minority  of  his  church, 
excluded;  but  the  great  majority  of  his  church  stood 
by  him  and  followed  his  lead. 

To  be  a  Freewiller  was  enough  to  make  one  odious, 
with  all  who  followed  Morgan,  so  that  churches  meet- 
ing in  the  same  community  had  no  fellowship  with 
each  other  and  but  little  intercourse  among  their  mem- 
bers. Criminations  and  recriminations  were  the  order 
of  the  day,  and  often  became  sources  of  scandal.  On 
the  other  hand,  Morgan  and  his  followers  were  called 
Antinomians,  and  their  doctrines  were  believed  to  be 
the  doctrines  of  devils. 

In  the  course  of  time  these  passions,  in  a  measure, 
subsided,  and  brethren  began,  in  a  more  teachable 
spirit,  to  discuss  these  questions  of  difference,  and  to 
their  amazement  found  that  they  were  not  so  far  apart 
as  they  had  imagined.  They  all  alike  believed  in  the 
doctrine  of  the  Trinity.  The  Deweese  party  said  in 
their  Confession  of  Faith :  "We  believe  in  One  Living 
and  True  God — the  Father,  the  Son,  and  the  Holy 
Ghost — yet  there  is  but  one  substance,  equal  in  power 
and  glory."  This  vindicated  them  from  the  charge  of 
Arianism.     They  accepted  the    Old  and  New    Testa- 


History  of  French  Broad  Association.  17 

ments  as  the  word  of  God,  and  the  only  rule  of  Faith 
and  Practice.  They  believed  in  the  doctrine  of  Original 
sin ;  that  all  mankind  were  lost  by  the  fall ;  that  man- 
kind was  powerless  to  recover  itself  from  its  lost  es- 
tate ;  that  a  Saviour  was  absolutely  necessary ;  that  sin- 
ners are  justified  only  by  the  imputed  Righteousness 
of  Christ ;  they  also  held  to  the  doctrine  of  the  Perse- 
verance of  Saints.  Finally  it  dawned  upon  them  that 
the  chief  difference  between  them  consisted  in  their  use 
and  interpretation  of  terms. 

In  the  Minutes  for  1847  we  f*1^  this  query  from 
Gabriel's  Creek  Church:  "Inasmuch  as  the  doctrine 
held  by  the  United  Baptists,  which  we  protested 
against,  has  measurably  subsided,  would  it  be  gospel 
order  to  invite  those  of  that  body  which  agree  with  us 
in  sentiment  to  the  Communion  Table?"  "Answer: 
We  think  it  would." 

At  the  session  of  1847  correspondence  was  offered 
to  French  Broad,  and  Elders  S.  Byrd  and  J.  M.  Bryan 
were  sent  as  messengers. 

This  correspondence^  was  accepted  by  the  French 
Broad  at  its  session  in  1848,  held  at  Grassy  Creek,  in 
Yancey  County,  and  Elders  Robert  Pattison,  Wm. 
Keith,  D.  W.  Murry,  H.  W.  Gilbert,  and  brethren 
James  Wilson,  Thos.  Runnion,  J.  P.  Edwards,  A.  Jer- 
vis,  and  May  Jervis  were  appointed  as  messengers  to 
Big  Ivy  Association.  The  next  year  the  union  was 
effected,  and  the  two  associations  became  one  under  the 
name  of  French  Broad. 

Thus  far  I  have  treated  of  facts  connected  with  the 
Big  Ivy  Association  and  its  progress,  because  I  had 


i8  History  of  French  Broad  Association. 

access  to  the  Minutes  of  that  body ;  I  now  turn  to  trace 
the  course  of  events  in  the  French  Broad. 

During  twenty  years  the  work  had  greatly  prospered 
under  the  guiding  hands  of  French  Broad's  ministry; 
the  churches  had  increased  in  membership,  new 
churches  had  been  established  in  other  communities, 
and  it  had  become  a  great  host.  The  churches  in  Hay- 
wood had  been  dismissed  to  form  the  Tuckaseige  As- 
sociation; in  1838  the  churches  in  South  Buncombe  and 
Henderson  County  had  been  dismissed  to  form  Salem 
Association.  The  churches  embraced  in  the  French 
Broad  at  this  date  were  Little  Ivy,  New  Found,  French 
Broad,  Cane  River,  Cane  Creek,  Mud  Creek,  Flat 
Creek,  Hominy,  Roan  Mountain,  Beula,  Ebinezer,  Bull 
Creek,  Grassy  Creek,  Big  Ivy,  Bethlehem,  Mount 
Pleasant,  Walnut  Creek,  New  Bethany,  Crab  Creek, 
Mill's  River,  and  Pine  Creek,  twenty  churches.  The 
churches  dismissed  were  Cane  Creek,  New  Bethany, 
Ebinezer,  Crab  Creek,  Beula,  French  Broad,  Mill's 
River,  Mount  Pleasant,  and  Mud  Creek,  nine  churches, 
which  left  eleven  in  the  old  body,  all  north  and  west 
of  Asheville. 

The  ministers  belonging  to  the  body  at  this  time  were 
David  Blackwell,  Moses  Freeman,  Peter  Miller,  Baily 
Bruce,  Stephen  Morgan,  Robert  Jordan,  James  Blythe, 
Wm.  Rees,  Jesse  Amnions,  Luke  L.  Branson,  Robert 
Pattison,  Thos.  Stradley,  John  Cantril  and  Merrit 
Rickman,  fourteen  ministers  and  twenty  churches. 
None  of  these  men  had  more  than  a  mere  smattering 
of  an  English  education,  but  each  of  them  was  pos- 
sessed of  a  good  share  of  sound  common  sense,  and 
were  fully  consecrated  to  the  work  of  preaching  the 
gospel. 


History  of  French  Broad  Association.  19 

The  churches  belonging  to  the  French  Broad  Asso- 
ciation in  1848,  the  year  before  the  Union,  and  prob- 
ably at  the  time  of  the  Union,  were  Little  Ivy,  New 
Found,  Flat  Creek,  Roan  Mountain,  Bull  Creek,  Grassy 
Creek,  Big  Ivy,  Bethlehem,  Walnut  Creek,  Pine  Creek, 
Macedonia,  Tow  River,  Bear  Creek,  Big  Laurel,  Rock 
Creek,  Flag  Pond,  Low  Gap,  and  Lynnville,  eighteen 
churches.  The  ministers  were  Wm.  Keith,  P.  Miller, 
P.  Parham,  J.  Parham,  Stephen  Morgan,  Wm.  Rees, 
L.  L.  Branson,  Robert  Pattison,  H.  Gilbert,  M.  Free- 
man, S.  R.  Miller,  Thos.  Wilson,  Stephen  Collis, 
Stephen  Wallen,  James  Hooker,  J.  Martin,  and  D.  W. 
Murray,  seventeen  in  all ;  the  number  of  preachers  al- 
most corresponding  with  the  number  of  churches,  but 
some  of  these  brethren  were  about  laid  aside  by  reason 
of  age.  The  progress  of  the  work,  after  the  consolida- 
tion, was  very  satisfactory ;  there  were  brethren  in 
both  bodies  who  had  labored  very  hard  to  effect  a  re- 
conciliation. Now  that  this  was  consummated  it  gave 
great  impetus  to  the  work ;  revivals  were  held  in  many 
of  the  churches,  and  they  grew  and  prospered  as  never 
before.  The  preachers  helped  each  other  in  these  meet- 
ings ;  sometimes  a  half  dozen  or  more  preachers  co- 
operated in  these  meetings ;  there  was  no  rivalry,  but 
complete  harmony  and  co-operation,  their  labors  were 
greatly  blessed,  the  old  spirit  of  strife  was  dead,  and 
hundreds  were  added  unto  the  churches :  it  was  a  beau- 
tiful illustration  of  "How  good  and  pleasant  it  is  to 
see  brethren  dwell  together  in  unity."  Where  there 
were  two  churches  in  the  same  community  they  united 
and  formed  one  church,  sometimes  taking  the  name  of 
the  Big  Ivy  Church,  and  at  others  that  of  the  Frnech 
Broad.     Bethlehem,  of  French  Broad,  and  Cane  River, 


20  History  of  French  Broad  Association. 

of  Big  Ivy.  united  and  became  Cane  River,  while 
Liberty  and  Big  Ivy  became  Big  Ivy.  thus  proving 
that  the  Union  was  sincere  and  permanent. 

The  French  Broad  brethren,  in  their  great  zeal  and 
anxiety  for  harmony  and  peace,  committed  a  very  seri- 
ous blunder  in  agreeing  to  incorporate  into  the  Consti- 
tution of  the  amalgamated  body  the  following  article : 
"This  Association  will  discountenance  and  repudiate 
the  aacrrine  ;:  a-articular.  personal,  unconditional,  and 
eternal  election  and  reprobation."  Some  of  the  breth- 
ren were  dissatisfied  with  this,  and  it  was  discussed 
from  time  to  time,  but  no  one  had  moral  courage  to 
attack  it  At  the  Association  at  Flag  Pond  in  18S1 
Rev.  John  Ammons  called  the  matter  up,  and  moved  to 
strike  it  out  of  the  Constitution.  After  some  discus- 
si:::  a::  a  debate  aver  the  matter  it  was  by  a  very  satis- 
factory  vote  expunged,  and  a  cause  of  reproach  re- 
moved.  The  Association  now  stands  as  holding  to  the 
d;c:ri::e  of  Modern  Calvinism,  :r  the  views  of  Fuller, 
rather  than  Gib. 

The  union  of  the  two  bodies  was  followed  by  a  re- 
vival  of  religion  throughout  the  territory-  occupied  by 
the  twc  associations,  and  it  was  wonderful  to  see  the 
brethren  laboring  in  these  meetings  as1  sweet-spirited 
as  if  there  had  never  existed  any  differences  among 

In  September.  :S5_.  a  meeting  was  held  at  Little 
Ivy  by  Rev.  Wm.  Keith,  the  pastor,  and  a  leader  in  the 
French  Broad,  ana  Rev.  Tames  Blythe.  a  leader  in  the 
apposing  faction,  that  was  wonderful  in  its  results.    At 

the  close  ::'  about  ten  days  there  were  sixty-five  per- 
sons  baptized  into  the  fellowship  of  the  church.  From 
this  :::eet:::g  the  revival  spread  to  other  churches  and 


History  of  French  Broad  Association.  21 

communities  till  it  became  general  throughout  the  As- 
sociation, and  hundreds  were  added  unto  the  churches. 
This  Association  since  the  union  has  been  peculiarly 
distinguished  by  the  spirit  of  evangelism.  In  1848  the 
Union  Association  had  been  organized,  and  about 
seven  churches  had  been  dismissed  from  Big  Ivy  to  be- 
come members  of  this  new  body. 

The  number  of  churches  in  the  consolidation  was 
thirty-seven,  with  a  membership  of  1.592.  These 
churches  were  scattered  over  the  territory  now  em- 
braced in  Xorth  Buncombe.  Madison,  Yancey  and 
Mitchell  counties.  In  October,  1849,  Roan  Mountain, 
Grassy  Creek,  Bear  Creek,  Rock  Creek,  Tow  River, 
Beaver  Creek,  Cranbury,  Laurel  Branch,  Ramsay 
Town,  Jack's  Creek,  and  Crab  Tree  were  dismissed  to 
enter  into  the  organization  of  the  Roan  Mountain  As- 
sociation. This  reduced  the  number  of  churches  re- 
maining in  the  French  Broad  to  twenty-six,  with  a 
membership  of  1.204.  and  its  territory  very  much  re- 
duced. 

The  Roan  Mountain  was  quite  a  strong  body  from 
the  beginning,  embracing  several  churches  which  had 
been  organized  during  the  year,  or  had  been  hereto  f<|pe 
unassociated.  The  number  of  members  embraced  in 
the  organization  was  666.  The  following  named  min- 
isters, whose  names  appear  in  the  Minutes  of  the  new 
Association,  belonged  to  French  Broad  after  its  amal- 
gamation with  Big  Ivy,  viz:  S.  Byrd,  L.  Buchannan, 
J.  Buchannan,  J.  Arrowood.  J.  Silver.  James  Rhea, 
Jesse  Rhea,  J.  Wheeler.  Moses  Peterson,  J.  W.  Aver, 
Thos.  Wilson,  and  S.  M.  Collis.  All  of  these  except 
Thos.  Wilson  and  S.  M.  Collis  had  belonged  to  the  Big 
Ivy  Association.     There  had  been  a  tendencv  on  the 


22  History  of  French  Broad  Association. 

part  of  some  brethren  to  practice  Open  Communion, 
and  some  of  the  churches  had  been  impregnated  with 
this  leaven.  At  the  time  of  the  union  they  opposed  it, 
and  had  shown  a  spirit  of  discontent,  and  at  the  or- 
ganization of  the  Roan  Mountain  Association  they  be- 
gan to  push  their  views  to  the  front.  At  the  second 
session  of  this  body,  says  the  Minutes,  "The  subject 
of  Open  Communion  was  discussed,  and  the  following 
resolution  was  adopted,  viz :  Resolved,  That  this  As- 
sociation do,  in  the  spirit  of  meekness,  advise  those 
churches  which  have  been  practicing  Open  Communion 
to  desist  from  the  practice,  as  we  think  it  involves 
inconsistency  to  retain  such  church,  or  churches,  a 
member,  or  members,  who  practice  the  same."  Hist., 
page  2. 

In  1 85 1  we  find  this  statement  in  the  History  of  this 
Association : 

"Resolution.  Inasmuch  as  Ramsay  Town,  Jack's 
Creek,  New  Liberty,  Pine  Grove,  and  Crooked  Creek 
churches  have  withdrawn  from  this  Association,  and 
have  become  a  distinct  body,  by  the  name  of  the  Tow 
River  Freewill  Christian  Communion  Baptists,  there- 
fore this  Association  withdraws  from  the  said  churches 
and  is  no  more  accountable  for  them." 

This  question  had  been  an  element  of  disturbance  in 
the  Big  Ivy  Association,  and  the  body  had  put  itself  on 
record  as  sound  on  the  question  in  their  Confession 
of  Faith,  Art.  VII :  "We  believe  that  Baptism  and  the 
Lord's  Supper  are  gospel  Ordinances,  and  true  be- 
lievers the  proper  subjects,  and  we  admit  of  no  others, 
knowingly." 

In  the  Minutes  for  1841  we  find  this:  "Query  from 
Tow  River.     Why  do  not  all  Christians  commune  to- 


History  of  French  Broad  Association.  23 

gether?  Is  there  no  chance  by  gospel  order?  Answer 
deferred  to  a  future  period." 

This  shows  that  the  Association  was  not  committed 
to  the  practice  of  Open  Communion,  and  there  is  no 
evidence  that  it  had  ever  been  practiced — except  it  may 
have  been,  to  a  limited  extent,  by  churches  under  the 
influence  of  John  Wheeler  and  Moses  Peterson.  I  have 
inserted  these  facts  because  the  Free  Will  Baptists  set 
up  the  claim  that  they  are  the  same  as  the  Big  Ivy  Bap- 
tists. Wheeler  and  Peterson  were  unwise  leaders,  and 
the  Free  Will  Church,  of  which  Wheeler  was  the  head, 
was  conceived  in  heresy  and  brought  forth  in  schism 
and  faction.  It  seems  to  have  always  shunned  the 
light,  and  is  to-day  to  be  found  in  corners  and  dark 
places.  There  has  never  been  a  leader  of  superior  in- 
telligence among  them ;  they  are  only  distinguished  by 
their  low  views  of  the  doctrines  of  Sovereign  Grace, 
their  unstability  of  Christian  character,  and  the  Chris- 
tian profession,  and  their  advocacy  of  Open  Commun- 
ion. There  is  not  the  slightest  similarity  between  them 
and  the  Big  Ivy  brethren. 

The  first  notice  which  we  have  of  the  missionary 
question  we  find  in  the  Minutes  of  French  Broad  in 
1848.     There  we  have  this  item: 

"Notice  the  missionary  question,  and  finding  that  all 
the  churches  in  our  Association  are  not  hearty  in  this 
matter,  we  agree  to  refer  it  until  our  next  session,  hop- 
ing our  brethren  may  consider  this  matter  and  give 
liberty  of  conscience  on  either  hand."     Min.  1848. 

Whether  any  notice  was  taken  of  it  in  1849  I  know 
not,  not  having  the  Minutes  of  that  session ;  but  it  is 
an  indisputable  fact'  that  immediately  after  the  union 
that  the  Association  began  to  do  missionary  work  in 


24  History  of  French  Broad  Association. 

its  own  bounds,  and  very  soon  began  to  contribute  to 
Foreign  and  Domestic    (now  Home)    Missions. 

An  amusing  incident  is  told  of  David  Blackwell.  In 
1846,  the  Western  Baptist  Convention  (auxiliary  to 
the  Baptist  State  Convention)  was  formed,  and  Elder 
James  Kimsey  was  sent  to  visit  the  churches  in  the 
French  Broad  Association.  He  came  to  Bull  Creek, 
where  Blackwell  was  pastor.  Blackwell  refused  to  al- 
low him  to  preach  to  his  congregation.  After  discuss- 
ing the  matter  at  some  length  with  his  deacons  and  the 
preachers  he  consented  to  let  him  preach  if  he,  Black- 
well,  was  allowed  to  open  the  services.  To  this  Kimsey 
assented.  The  people  assembled,  and  Blackwell  pro- 
ceeded to  read  and  sing  a  hymn,  after  which  he  knelt 
in  prayer,  and  thus  he  prayed:  "O  Lord  have  mercy 
upon  us ;  what  shall  we  do !  The  missionaries  are 
upon  us !"  It  was  believed  then,  by  most  of  the  breth- 
ren, that  the  missionary  scheme  was  purely  mercenary, 
and  that  the  missionary  was  a  money  hunter.  But 
these  narrow  views  soon  began  to  give  way,  and  now 
for  more  than  fifty  years  the  French  Broad  Association 
has  been  a  missionary  body. 

The  subject  of  temperance,  from  about  1850,  began 
to  receive  a  due  share  of  attention.  It  was  about  this 
time  that  Gabriel's  Creek  Church  sent  up  a  query  to 
the  Association  which  called  forth  this  deliverance : 
"We  advise  the  churches  of  this  Association  not  to  re- 
tain in  membership  persons  who  make,  vend,  or  use 
intoxicating  liquors,  except  for  medical  or  mechanical 
purposes."  This  was  taking  high  ground  for  that  day, 
but  the  Association,  at  each  annual  meeting  until  now, 
has  thrown  the  whole  of  its  influence  in  favor  of  strict 
temperance.    It  was  about  1850  that  the  Sunday  school 


History  of  French  Broad  Association.  25 

work  began  to  receive  some  attention.  The  first  school 
established  was  at  Gabriel's  Creek,  about  1853.  This 
school,  with  slight  intervals,  has  continued  up  to  the 
present  time,  1907,  being  over  fifty  years  old.  The 
Sunday  school  work  took  on  no  distinctive  face  for  a 
number  of  years.  It  was  a  good  place  to  gather  the 
children  on  Sunday,  where  they  could  be  kept  out  of 
mischief,  and  it  also  afforded  some  literary  advantages, 
and  it  was  no  uncommon  thing  to  see  children  come 
to  the  Sunday  school  with  the  Blue-back  Speller,  or  a 
child's  primer.  But  the  religious  idea  soon  got  the  as- 
cendancy, and  as  the  Sunday  School  Union  had  intro- 
duced its  work  most  of  the  schools  were  Union  schools. 
In  these  schools,  by  common  consent,  all  questions  of 
doctrinal  difference  among  Christians  were  excluded. 
It  will  be  seen,  therefore,  that  everything  fundamental 
to  vital  Christianity  was  debarred  from  these  schools. 
A  Sunday  School  Convention  was  organized  and  called 
the  "Ivy  Union  Sunday  School  Convention,"  and  most 
of  the  preachers  in  the  French  Broad  Association  be- 
came leaders  in  this  movement.  This  body  met  annu- 
ally, and  the  brethren,  for  three  days,  had  a  good  time 
discussing  questions  of  morals  and  plans  of  work.  At 
each  of  these  gatherings  there  was  more  or  less  preach- 
ing, but  nothing  to  indicate  whether  the  preacher  was 
Methodist,  Presbyterian,  Episcopalian,  Campbellite,  or 
Baptist ;  truly  it  was  easy  sailing,  except  for  the  pains 
that  had  to  be  taken  to  avoid  giving  offense.  This 
condition  of  things  continued  without  a  break  or  check 
till  1869.  In  that  year  Rev.  John  Ammons  suggested 
a  change  in  the  work,  that  it  be  made  more  objective 
and  denominational.  Strange  as  it  may  appear  it  pre- 
cipitated a  fierce  controversy  which  continued  for  sev- 


26  History  of  French  Broad  Association. 

eral  years.  Amnions  stood  almost  alone  in  advocacy 
of  denominational  schools,  and  his  fiercest  opposers 
were  found  among  the  preachers.  Only  two  or  three 
of  the  preachers  stood  with  him  and  had  the  courage 
to  face  the  storm  and  advocate  what  they  believed  to 
be  right  and  according  to  truth.  L.  L.  Branson  was 
outspoken ;  J.  W.  Hooker  was  with  Ammons  in  his 
convictions,  but  took  no  active  part  in  the  discussions; 
W.  T.  Bradley  was  then  young  in  the  ministry  and 
for  some  time  took  no  part  in  the  controversy,  but  soon 
lined  up  on  the  side  of  his  own  church.  Among  the 
older  preachers  there  were  none  found  to  stand  for 
their  own  church  and  its  doctrines  in  this  conflict  save 
L.  L.  Branson,  H.  W.  Gilbert,  and  Jesse  Whitt. 

The  conflict  was  carried  on  quite  fiercely,  especially 
by  Ammons'  opponents,  and  at  the  session  of  the  Asso- 
ciation held  at  Little  Ivy  Church  in  1871  there  was  a 
combined  effort  made  to  crush  Ammons.  No  fiercer 
contest  ever  transpired  in  the  Association  than  this. 
Every  minister,  save  two,  were  against  Ammons,  and 
all  this  before  he  had  had  a  word ;  it  was  a  carefully 
prepared  battle,  and  can  probably  be  partly  accounted 
for  from  the  fact  that  he  had  dealt  very  severely  with 
the  advocates  of  Union  Sunday  schools.  But  he  faced 
the  ordeal  like  one  conscious  that  he  was  in  the  right, 
and  when  the  Association  came  to  vote  on  the  question 
which  gave  rise  to  the  debate  he  won  the  day  by  a  de- 
cided majority.  The  sturdy  old-fashioned  Baptists  set 
their  veto  on  those  who  would  lead  them,  and  thus  re- 
buked them  for  their  want  of  denominational  firmness. 
From  this  time  the  Sunday  school  work  became  more 
Baptistic.  The  immediate  occasion  of  this  controversy 
was  that  Rev.  D.  B.  Nelson,  a  Baptist  minister,  was 


History  of  French  Broad  Association.  27 

laboring  in  Western  N.  C.  under  the  appointment  of 
the  American  Sunday  School  Union.  He  was  an  able 
minister,  and  regarded  as  a  leader  in  the  denomination. 
He  looked  at  it,  no  doubt,  from  a  business  standpoint ; 
his  living  was  from  the  sale  of  his  books,  and  the  num- 
ber of  schools  he  organized  and  visited,  most  of  the 
schools  were  in  Baptist  churches,  should  these  with- 
draw their  patronage  it  would  seriously  interfere  with 
his  business.  He,  therefore,  set  himself  with  might 
and  main  to  oppose  and  defeat  the  movement. 

He  and  Amnions  had  a  sharp  newspaper  discus- 
sion over  the  matter,  and  most  people  said  that  Nelson 
was  only  second  best  in  the  war  of  words;  joined  with 
him  was  Rev.  N.  Bowen,  a  man  of  considerable  ability 
and  broad  culture.  Both  of  these  brethren  threw  the 
whole  weight  of  their  influence  against  the  movement, 
with  the  advantage  of  having  a  newspaper  at  their  com- 
mand, for  Bowen  was  then  publishing  a  paper  at 
Hendersonville,  N.  C.  Neither  of  these  brethren  were 
members  of  French  Broad  Association.  Nelson  visited 
the  Association  and  encouraged  the  opposition,  but  it 
only  made  the  victory  more  complete,  for  the  effect  of 
the  controversy  was  felt  more  or  less  throughout 
Western  N.  C,  and  greatly  helped  in  lining  our  peo- 
ple up  in  support  of  a  Sunday  school  work  that  had  a 
meaning. 

The  controversy  was  in  some  sense  to  be  deplored, 
because  it  operated  as  a  bar  to  hearty  co-operation  be- 
tween those  who  differed  on  this  question ;  yet  when 
the  question  was  settled  those  who  had  differed  came 
out  of  the  smoke  of  battle  friends,  and  worked  together 
as  if  they  had  always  agreed ;  and  the  ultimate  result 
was  one  of  great  good  to  the  cause  of  truth  and  right- 


28  History  of  French  Broad  Association. 

eousness.  It  had  caused  our  people  to  study  the  Sun- 
day school  problem,  and  led  them  to  see  that  Sunday 
school  work  was  but  a  department  of  church  work, 
and  that  there  is  the  same  argument  for  Union 
Churches  that  there  is  for  Union  Sunday  Schools. 

In  the  year  1855,  the  New  Found  Association  was 
organized  at  Flat  Creek  in  Buncombe  County.  The 
following  churches  were  dismissed  from  French  Broad 
to  enter  into  this  new  organization,  viz:  Flat  Creek, 
Turkey  Creek,  New  Found,  Bethel,  in  Buncombe 
County,  and  Bear  Creek,  Spring  Creek,  and  Tittle 
Mountain,  in  Madison  County. 

The  territory  of  the  Association  then  embraced  that 
part  of  Madison  County  northeast  of  the  French  Broad 
River,  a  portion  of  Yancey  County,  with  two  or  three 
churches  in  Tennessee.  What  its  numerical  strength 
was  is  not  known  to  the  writer,  having  no  Minutes  of 
that  time. 

From  the  union  of  the  French  Broad  and  Big  Ivy 
Associations  there  had  been  continual  growth  and  in- 
crease till  the  beginning  of  the  war  in  1861.  Churches 
had  been  organized  at  Upper  Laurel,  East  Fork,  Mar's 
Hill,  and  Ivy  Gap,  and  the  old  churches  had  increased 
in  membership  and  efficiency.  The  session  for  1861 
was  held  with  the  church  at  Cane  River ;  it  was  a  time 
of  intense  excitement ;  the  war  feeling  was  running 
very  high ;  the  people  were  divided  in  sentiment ;  most 
of  the  brethren  favored  secession,  and  were  supporters 
of  the  war,  but  some  very  good  brethren  entertained 
adverse  sentiments,  and  were  opposed  to  the  war ;  this 
gave  rise  to  much  bitterness  of  feeling  and  evil  sur- 
misings.  Rev.  H.  W.  Gilbert  was  a  Union  man,  and 
to  those  of  the  adverse  sentiments  he  was  a  dangerous 


History  of  French  Broad  Association.  29 

and  suspicious  character.  Wm.  Ray,  Berry  Duyck  and 
Baylus  Gardner  entered  into  an  agreement  to  make 
Rev.  Gilbert  pray  for  Jeff  Davis  and  the  Confederacy, 
or  ride  him  on  a  rail. 

Prayer-meeting  was  appointed  for  Sunday  morning, 
and  the  aforementioned  gentlemen  waited  on  Rev. 
John  Ammons  to  tell  him  of  their  plans  and  give  him 
directions  for  conducting  the  prayer-meeting;  while 
they  would  be  on  hand  to  note  events  and  act  accord- 
ingly. But  Ammons  was  not  the  man  to  be  either  led 
or  intimidated.  He  told  them  that  he  thought  that  he 
understood  his  own  business,  and  needed  no  special 
directions  from  them.  The  Sunday  morning  prayer- 
meeting  was  conducted  by  Ammons,  and  managed  in 
such  a  way  as  to  save  the  old  brother  from  insult  and 
injury.  Saving  this  incident  the  session  was  harmoni- 
ous and  pleasant.  During  the  war  and  for  some  years 
after  the  work  was  retarded  and  languished,  and  little 
more  was  done  than  to  maintain  the  organization  in- 
tact. True,  immediately  after  the  war  there  were  re- 
vivals in  most  of  the  churches,  and  a  large  increase  in 
membership,  but  the  country  was  in  ruin,  property  de- 
stroyed, fields  laid  waste,  and  church-houses  dilapi- 
dated, so  that  it  required  some  years  to  regain,  in  a 
temporal  view,  what  had  been  lost. 

The  work  of  missions  received  some  attention ;  Sun- 
day schools  were  maintained  in  most  of  the  churches ; 
education  and  temperance  were  promoted  and  fostered. 
After  the  money  crisis  of  1872-3  there  came  a  time  of 
material  prosperity  before  unknown  ;  farming  was  stim- 
ulated and  improved,  and  every  line  of  industry  gave 
ample  return  for  the  labor  and  capital  invested,  and 
wealth  increased  with  a  bound. 


3<d  History  of  French  Broad  Association. 

The  churches  partook  of  the  spirit  of  enterprise  and 
progress  and  materially  advanced  along  all  lines ;  better 
houses  of  worship  were  erected,  contributions  for  mis- 
sions and  other  benevolent  purposes  raised  in  many 
churches,  and  as  a  rule  the  churches  began  to  pay  their 
pastors  more,  and  which  now  they  began  to  call  salary, 
for  prior  to  1850  such  thing  as  salary  for  a  Baptist 
pastor  was  unknown. 

It  was  by  a  slow  process  that  the  Baptists  of  French 
Broad  came  to  recognize  the  obligation  to  give  their 
pastors  a  decent  support ;  and  even  at  this  time  there 
are  many  that  seem  never  to  have  discovered  this 
duty.  Tell  them  that  the  Holy  Ghost  has  said,  "They 
that  preach  the  gospel  shall  live  of  the  gospel ;"  and 
they  were  ready  with  an  interpretation,  to  set  aside  its 
force,  "God  will  take  care  of  His  servants,"  as  if  they 
expected  Him  to  feed  the  preacher  as  He  fed  the  tribes 
on  the  Exodus,  or  Elijah  by  the  brook  Cherith.  But 
such  is  unsanctified  human  nature.  No  doubt  it  arises 
more  from  covetousness  and  meanness  of  spirit  than 
from  ignorance  of  duty. 

During  the  last  twenty-five  years  the  brotherhood  has 
been  taking  a  lively  interest  in  education,  and  at  this 
time  it  is  a  rare  thing  to  find  in  Baptist  families  chil- 
dren ten  years  of  age  that  can  not  read,  and  there  is  a 
growing  tendency  to  demand  a  larger  share  of  culture 
in  the  ministry. 

The  demand  has  not  been  for  men  of  the  schools — 
college  men — as  for  men  of  reading;  men  who  have 
been  called  of  God,  and  then  under  a  sense  of  their 
obligation  to  make  the  most  and  the  best  of  themselves, 
have,  it  may  be,  under  adverse  conditions,  developed 
into  men  of  wonderful  power.    The  attitude  in  which 


History  of  French  Broad  Association.  31 

the  churches  stand  to  an  educated  ministry  is  not  one 
of  opposition  to  schools  and  colleges,  these  they  esteem 
as  necessary  and  proper  in  their  place;  but  many  wise 
and  cautious  brethren  think  there  is  danger  ahead ; 
they  think  they  see  a  tendency  to  substitute  culture  for 
a  Divine  call,  rather  making  the  ministry  a  profession, 
and  not  a  Divine  calling.  These  Baptists  believe  that 
God  can  take  a  man  from  the  plow,  from  the  work- 
shop, from  the  anvil,  from  the  counting-room,  and  ac- 
complish His  purpose  with  him,  and  that  the  Spirit's 
presence  is  of  more  importance  than  human  learning. 
The  schools  have  no  authority  than  that  accorded  to 
them  by  common  consent ;  the  dictum  of  one  school  is 
denied  by  another,  but  the  voice  of  the  Spirit  is  always 
the  same,  and  His  authority  is  supreme :  education  is 
a  good  thing,  but  grace  is  of  infinitely  greater  worth. 
The  Association  is  now  confined  to  that  portion  of 
Madison  County  east  of  the  French  Broad  River,  with 
one  church  in  Buncombe  County.  It  now  contains 
2,788  members. 

While  it  has  been  doing  something  for  the  support 
of  missions,  it  was  comparatively  little,  but  at  the  last 
session,  1906,  it  was  resolved  to  try  to  raise  enough  to 
support  a  missionary  on  the  field  (foreign),  and  a 
large  portion  was  secured  by  pledges. 

A  number  of  Woman's  Missionary  societies  have 
also  been  formed  and  have  been  doing  good  work,  and 
the  indications  are  that  the  body  is  becoming  thor- 
oughly imbued  with  the  spirit  of  missions.  Little  Ivy 
is  the  oldest  church  in  the  body,  if  not  the  oldest  in  the 
West,  and  many  of  its  members,  laymen,  are  worthy 
of  special  mention.  In  its  earlier  days  it  contained  E. 
Amnions,  John  Amnions,  May  Holcombe,  Jabez  Jervis, 


32  History  of  French  Broad  Association. 

and  these  were  followed  by  John  George,  Robert 
Ponder,  Absalom  Hooker,  Abner,  May,  and  Rezi  Jer- 
vis,  and  John  Ramsay.  These  men  were  noted  in  their 
day,  men  of  whom  it  might  be  justly  said,  "They  were 
epistles  of  Christ,  read  and  known  of  all  men."  They 
carried  their  religion  into  every-day  life,  and  wielded  a 
wholesome  influence  in  every  sphere  in  which  they 
moved.  Absalom  Hooker  was  a  wonderful  man ;  plain, 
common  sense,  candid,  matter-of-fact;  piety  was  with 
him  no  ostentation,  it  was  a  benediction  to  a  home  to 
have  him  visit  it ;  he  was  not  a  man  of  learning,  yet  he 
was  learned  in  the  Scriptures,  to  him  the  Scriptures 
was  the  only  rule  of  Faith  and  Practice.  It  is  not  to 
be  wondered  at  that  in  these  older  churches,  with  such 
men  at  the  helm,  that  the  strictest  discipline  was  main- 
tained. Everybody  in  those  days  drank  intoxicating 
liquors,  but  woe  to  the  Baptist  that  drank  to  intoxica- 
tion ;  he  was  always  excluded  for  the  second  offense. 

These  men  believed  that  the  church  ought  to  be  pure, 
and  that  it  was  their  business  to  keep  it  pure ;  they  had 
an  exalted  idea  of  what  it  was  to  be  a  Christian  and  a 
member  of  the  church. 

They  maintained  that  none  could  come  into  the 
church  but  through  the  new  birth  and  baptism,  hence 
they  insisted  on  and  demanded  an  intelligent  profes- 
sion of  faith,  which  consisted  in  a  verbal  statement 
before  the  church  of  the  way  by  which  they  had  been 
led  to  cease  from  sin  and  to  embrace  Christ,  that  is, 
believe  on  Him. 

Sometimes  these  experiences  partook  of  the  ludi- 
crous, but  this  could  be  accounted  for  partly  from 
superstition,  every  little  incident  being  magnified  and 
held  to  be  a  divine  manifestation,  and  partly  from  the 


History  of  French  Broad  Association.  33 

ignorance  of  the  times.  Few  persons  could  read  the 
Scriptures,  and  even  those  who  could  read  knew  little 
of  the  meaning  of  words,  or  the  interpretation  of  lan- 
guage; but  out  of  all  this  confusion  of  ideas  and  un- 
avoidable ignorance  they  managed  to  get  the  mind  of 
the  Spirit,  and  were  genuine,  spiritual-minded  Chris- 
tians. There  is  quite  a  contrast  between  churches  of 
that  time  and  those  of  the  present  day. 

John  Ramsay  was  another  noted  character  in  his 
day;  he  was  a  man  of  rugged  build,  both  physically 
and  mentally,  and  his  religious  life  partook  of  the  same 
rugged  character.  With  him  to  be  a  Christian  meant 
separation  from  the  world,  a  living  in  the  world  and 
yet  living  above  it ;  he  carried  his  matter-of-fact  re- 
ligion into  every-day  life  and  his  power  for  good  was 
felt  and  known  in  every  circle  in  which  he  moved.  He 
was  one  of  the  most  devoted  and  successful  workers 
in  revival  meetings  the  writer  ever  knew.  Bull  Creek 
Church  was  one  of  the  oldest,  and  in  its  membership 
were  found  Levi  Baily,  David  Edwards,  John  Allen, 
Lewis  Bryan  and  David  Peek.  From  these  sprang  a 
numerous  progeny,  noted  for  their  staid  religious  lives. 
The  Peeks  and  Bryans  were  noted  for  their  steadfast 
religious  faith  and  godly  lives ;  such  men  are  an  honor 
to  any  country  and  any  time.  It  is  a  sad  reflection  that 
the  children  of  these  godly  men  and  women  have  not 
maintained  the  honor  of  their  families  unstained ;  some 
of  their  offspring  have  shown  themselves  to  be  degen- 
erate plants  of  a  strange  vine :  and  yet  these  old 
churches  are,  many  of  them,  made  up  of  the  descend- 
ants of  these  noble  men  of  God. 

Wm.  Peek,  son  of  David,  entered  the  ministry,  but 
his  career  was  cut  short  by  disease.  After  a  painful 
3 


34  History  of  French  Broad  Association. 

and  lingering  attack  of  rheumatism  he  passed  away  in 
midlife,  and  left  a  noble  record  behind  him.  Flat 
Creek  Church  was  one  of  the  first  organized  after  the 
Association  was  established.  Stephen  Morgan  was  in 
the  organization  and  was  its  pastor  till  he  became  too 
feeble  to  preach;  his  pastorate  here  continued  over 
forty  years.  In  the  membership  of  this  church  was 
found  Thos.  Gentry,  Noah  Morgan,  Stephen  Morgan, 
Jun,  Rezin  Davis,  Jesse  Gentry,  and  John  Bell;  these 
men  were  devoted  Christians,  and  did  much  to  shape 
the  course  of  events  in  the  church  and  in  their  com- 
munity. Noah  Morgan  was  far  in  advance  of  his  day 
in  aiding  and  promoting  every  enterprise  for  the  up- 
building of  the  church  or  community;  no  man  was 
ever  more  beloved  by  those  who  knew  him.  Big  Ivy  was 
made  up  of  Big  Ivy,  of  French  Broad,  and  Liberty,  of 
Big  Ivy  Association;  it  contained  John  Greenwood, 
Thos.  Dillingham,  Solomon  Carter,  J.  A.  Buckner, 
Pleas.  Hurst,  John  Hurst,  Joseph  McKinney,  and  Hen- 
son  Carson.  Solomon  Carter  was  a  prince  among  men, 
in  a  long  life  he  seldom  missed  his  church  meeting, 
and  was  absent  from  the  communion  service  but  once 
in  forty  years.  Middle  Fork  was  one  of  the  churches 
that  followed  the  lead  of  Deweese;  the  most  distin- 
guished of  its  members  was  Daniel  Carter.  The  divis- 
ion had  been  to  him  a  source  of  much  unhappiness,  and 
for  twenty  years  he  had  labored  to  bring  peace  to 
troubled  Zion,  and  had  told  his  brethren  that  he  was 
praying  the  Lord  to  let  him  live  to  see  the  breaches  all 
healed. 

The  union  between  the  two  bodies  was  effected  at 

Flat  Creek  on  Saturday,  September ,  1849.     Br0- 

Carter  was  present  as  a  representative  of  Big  Ivy,  and 


History  of  French  Broad  Association.  35 

gave  his  vote  and  influence  in  favor  of  the  union.  He 
returned  to  his  home  that  night  happy  in  the  realiza- 
tion of  his  ardent  prayers,  and  during  the  night  he 
joined  the  Association  above.  He  was  found  next 
morning  in  his  bed  dead.  Without  a  groan  and  with- 
out a  struggle  he  had  passed  to  rest. 

Gabriel's  Creek  Church  was  established  by  the  De- 
weese  faction,  as  it  did  not  exist  at  the  time  of  the 
division ;  it  has  always  been  distinguished  for  the 
purity  of  its  membership.  Among  the  first  members 
were  John  Fox,  Daniel  Buckner,  Matthew  Lewis  and 
Geo.  and  William  S.  Sprinkle ;  some  years  after  Lewis 
Palmer  came  from  Ivy  to  this  church.  Palmer  was  a 
great  and  good  man,  modest  and  unpretentious ;  his 
power  for  good  was  felt  in  every  circle  in  which  he 
moved.  He  was  an  advocate  for  what  made  for  right- 
eousness, but  he  hated  shams  and  frauds  and  sin  with 
perfect  hatred. 

Palmer  had  a  high  Christian  ideal ;  with  him  to  be  a 
Christian  was  to  be  a  new  man ;  the  time  past,  to  him, 
was  enough  to  have  wrought  the  will  of  the  Gentiles, 
to  have  lived  in  lust,  revelry,  drunkenness  and  abomi- 
nable idolatries,  the  law  of  life  and  freedom  from  sin, 
through  Christ  Jesus,  was  the  rule  of  Christian  life. 
He  was  a  leader  in  the  temperance  reform,  and  the 
first  step  in  the  temperance  movement  in  the  French 
Broad  Association  was  occasioned  by  a  query  from 
Gabriel's  Creek  Church  to  the  session  of  185 1,  asking 
what  course  should  be  pursued  by  the  church  with 
members  who  manufactured,  sold  or  used  ardent 
spirits,  except  for  medical  or  mechanical  purposes.  The 
Association  advised  that  they  be  expelled.     This  high 


36  History  of  French  Broad  Association, 

ground  and  honorable  position  taken  by  the  Associa- 
tion was  due  to  the  masterful  influence  of  Palmer. 

Palmer  was  better  posted  in  matters  of  history  and 
questions  of  doctrine  than  any  other  man  in  the  Asso- 
ciation, and  his  advice  was  widely  sought  on  all  ques- 
tions of  difference  among  brethren.  He  was  a  great 
student  of  human  nature,  and  took  great  delight  in 
reading  men ;  he  was  no  cinic,  searching  for  faults,  but 
rather  that  he  might  find  some  praiseworthy  trait;  he 
loved  truth  and  simple  honesty,  and  was  always  pleased 
when  he  discovered  something  in  one  worthy  to  be 
commended.  He  loved  the  brethren,  loved  the  people, 
and  took  delight  in  making  others  happy ;  he  saw  in 
the  gospel  the  only  panacea  for  sin  and  human  ills, 
and  his  chief  happiness  he  found  in  efforts  to  extend 
its  conquests  and  triumphs.  His  memory  and  noble 
life  occupies  the  place  of  honor  in  the  affections  of 
those  who  knew  him — and  he  was  widely  known.  Oh 
how  we  miss  him. 

During  the  decade  from  1850  to  i860  churches  were 
organized  at  Upper  Laurel,  East  Fork  of  Bull  Creek, 
and  Mars  Hill. 

East  Fork  was  organized  in  the  midst  of  a  ledge  of 
overshadowing  mountains,  with  a  membership,  few  in 
numbers,  but  strong  in  character.  Among  them  was 
John  Ramsay  and  wife,  Roxy,  John  Smith  and  wife, 
Elizabeth,  Absalom  Hooker  and  wife,  Mary,  Anna 
Peek,  John  Ammons  and  wife,  Sallie,  and  Isabel  P. 
Buckner,  who  was  soon  added  by  baptism.  No  church 
ever  started  with  better  prospects,  so  far  as  the  char- 
acter of  its  members  is  concerned ;  they  were  bold  sol- 
diers of  the  cross,  ready  for  every  good  word  and  work. 

The  church    at  Mars  Hill  was    weak  in    numbers, 


History  of  French  Broad  Association.  37 

composed  of  the  leading  families  in  the  community,  it 
started  on  its  career  with  favorable  prospects.  Num- 
bered among  its  members  were  E.  Carter  and  wife,  J. 
W.  Anderson  and  wife,  John  Radford  and  wife,  and 
Eliza  Ray ;  T.  W.  Ray  was  added  afterwards  by  bap- 
tism. The  growth  of  the  church  was  slow,  and  during 
the  war  of  1861-5  it  was  almost  annihilated. 

Just  after  the  war  a  meeting  was  held  by  Rev.  Jacob 
Wild  and  Rev.  Levi  Deweese,  with  good  results ;  quite 
a  number  were  converted  and  added  to  the  church,  and 
Deweese  was  called  to  the  care  of  the  church.  De- 
weese was  a  man  strong  in  character  and  devotion,  but 
weak  in  point  of  ability  as  a  preacher ;  he  was  rather 
an  exhorter,  but  the  people  were  easily  suited ;  they 
were  hungry  for  the  gospel,  and  Deweese  did,  for  two 
years,  a  good  work,  and  the  church  was  much  strength- 
ened. After  him  was  Rev.  J.  W.  Anderson,  for  some 
years,  then  came  Rev.  L.  W.  Sams,  who  continued 
with  the  church  till  about  1889;  he  was  succeeded  by 
Rev.  T.  M.  Honeycutt. 

During  the  pastorate  of  L.  W.  Sams  he  engaged  Rev. 
John  Amnions  to  aid  him  in  a  meeting,  and  a  brother 
Taylor,  from  Kentucky,  came  in  with  them.  It 
was  a  wonderful  meeting,  resulting  in  about  forty 
additions  to  the  church.  Pastor  Sams  said  to  the 
writer  several  years  after,  "The  meeting  which  you  and 
Bro.  Taylor  held  was  the  best  meeting  Mars  Hill  ever 
had,  it  was  the  beginning  of  Mars  Hill's  upbuilding." 
Honeycutt's  pastorate  was  for  a  time  very  successful, 
but  at  last  began  to  drag  and  he  resigned.  He  was  suc- 
ceeded by  Rev.  S.  W.  Hall  for  one  year;  the  church 
made  no  progress  under  his  administration.  Rev.  W. 
E.  Wilkins  followed  him,  but  after  a  few  months  re- 


38  History  of  French  Broad  Association. 

tired,  and  was  succeeded  by  Rev.  W.  H.  Woodall. 
Woodall  was  a  scholarly  man,  a  learned  theologian  and 
a  good  preacher,  but  under  his  administration  the 
church  fell  to  pieces  and  made  no  progress.  He  re- 
signed, and  John  Amnions,  one  of  the  native  preachers, 
was  invited  to  hold  a  meeting  of  days.  The  meeting 
developed  into  a  wonderful  revival  in  which  the  church 
was  brought  together;  the  old  brethren  and  sisters 
from  the  country  flocked  to  the  meeting  and  remained 
day  and  night  for  a  week ;  the  result  was  forty-nine 
professions  of  conversion,  twenty-nine  additions  by 
baptism,  twenty  or  more  by  letter,  and  the  complete 
unifying  of  the  church.  Amnions  was  called  to  the 
pastorate  by,  as  he  was  told,  the  unanimous  vote  of  the 
church,  but  he  afterwards  learned  that  Prof.  Moore 
was  opposed  to  his  call.  At  the  end  of  six  months,  the 
time  for  which  the  first  call  had  been  made,  he  was 
unanimously  called  for  a  year.  During  the  first  year 
of  Amnions'  pastorate  the  church  did  better  work  than 
it  had  done  for  a  number  of  years,  and  many  said  it 
was  the  best  year  in  its  history,  and  yet  the  habit  of 
doing  nothing  had  been  cultivated  till  it  was  hard  to 
break  it  off  and  fall  into  line  of  active  work.  In  the 
spring  of  1905  another  revival  meeting  was  held  in 
which  there  were  twenty-six  additions  by  baptism,  and 
the  church  at  the  time  appeared  to  be  much  revived; 
but  immediately  after  the  meeting  the  attendance  on 
the  stated  services  began  to  fall  off,  and  during  the 
summer  most  of  the  church  members  were  in  the  old 
ruts. 

There  was  a  weekly  prayer-meeting,  but  no  one  at- 
tended but  the  pastor,  two  or  three  sisters  and  the  stu- 
dents in  the  school ;  the  brethren  in  town  seldom  at- 


History  of  French  Broad  Association.  39 

tended,  and  Deacon  Moore,  though  living  in  one  hun- 
dred yards  of  the  church,  was  not  present  more  than 
three  times  during  the  summer.  In  some  lines  of  work 
the  church  had  made  improvement,  the  contributions 
along  all  lines  had  increased,  but  it  was  quite  a  diffi- 
cult thing  to  get  up  the  meager  salary  promised  to  the 
pastor.  The  church  had  promised  him  one  hundred 
and  fifty  dollars  for  half  of  his  time.  The  pastoral 
year  ended  with  the  August  meeting  just  before  the 
Association.  Prof.  Moore,  a  deacon  of  the  church, 
stated  that  the  church  was  in  arrears  with  the  pastor, 
hence  in  no  condition  to  elect  a  pastor,  and  moved  to 
refer  it  to  some  future  time.  Next  day,  Sunday,  Dea- 
con J.  R.  Sams  moved  that  the  pastor  continue  with 
the  church,  and  work  with  it,  and  act  as  pastor  as  he 
had  done,  and  the  motion  being  put  was  carried  unani- 
mously. 

Time  passed  till  four  months  had  gone,  the  salary 
had  not  been  paid,  but  had  increased  from  forty  to 
ninety-five  dollars,  and  no  effort  apparently  had  been 
made  to  raise  it.  The  pastor's  hands  were  tied,  he 
could  not  plan  any  work  for  the  future ;  any  plans  he 
might  lay  to-day  could  be  blighted  to-morrow ;  he  felt 
embarrassed  and  handicapped ;  the  church  was  taking 
no  steps  to  call  a  pastor.  He  notified  the  church  that 
he  was  tired  of  this  state  of  things,  and  told  the  dea- 
cons to  confer  about  the  matter  and  let  him  know  what 
they  wanted  and  what  they  proposed  to  do.  In  the 
meantime  the  church  had  re-elected  Amnions  for  six 
months.  After  some  delay  the  deacons  held  a  meeting 
and  reported  to  the  pastor,  that  in  their  consultation 
they  had  agreed  that  as  he,  the  pastor,  was  getting  old, 
and  the  burdens  of  church  work  were  increasing,  that 


40  History  of  French  Broad  Association. 

the  church  needed  a  more  active  man,  after  the  six 
months  for  which  he  had  been  called  had  expired.  The 
pastor  said,  in  conferring  with  them,  that  he  felt  that 
his  pastorate  had  not  been  a  complete  failure;  that  the 
church  had  increased  its  contributions  on  all  lines ;  that 
it  had  maintained  a  wholesome  discipline ;  that  an 
average  spiritual  condition  had  been  maintained,  and 
that  there  had  been  an  addition  to  the  membership  by- 
baptism  of  eighty-eight,  and  more  than  fifty  by  letter — ■ 
for  there  had  just  closed  a  third  revival  in  which  there 
had  been  thirty-one  additions  by  baptism.  Deacon 
Moore  replied,  "The  church  has  made  progress,  it  is  in 
better  condition  now  than  at  any  time  since  I  have  been 
here,  and  I  have  been  here  nine  years."  The  opposi- 
tion to  the  pastor  was  not  that  he  had  been  neglectful 
of  his  duties,  nor  that  he  was  unacceptable  to  the  peo- 
ple, for  he  had  drawn  the  people  to  him  as  much  as  any 
pastor  which  the  church  had  ever  had,  but  the  deacons 
said  he  was  "getting  old,"  which  was  not  true,  for  he 
was  already  old,  was  old  when  he  was  called  to  be  the 
pastor;  but,  notwithstanding  his  age,  one  of  the  dea- 
cons, after  a  struggle  over  the  matter  in  prayer,  had 
discovered  that  he,  the  pastor,  was  the  only  one  that 
could,  unite  the  church  and  restore  the  waste  places. 
The  question  of  the  pastor's  age  was  only  a  subterfuge. 

He  told  the  brethren  that  he  did  not  propose  to  be 
either  an  excuse  nor  an  apology  for  a  pastor — he 
handed  in  his  resignation. 

When  he  took  the  church  it  was  comparatively  a 
dead  church ;  under  his  administration  it  had  been  re- 
vived and  brought  into  harmony;  there  had  been  con- 
tinual improvement  along  many  lines ;  the  church  was 
at  peace ;  the  pastor  had  labored  hard  to  bring  it  up 


History  of  French  Broad  Association.  41 

to  a  state  of  efficiency,  and  just  at  the  time  when  his 
most  ardent  wish  had  been  realized — and  this  was  true, 
according  to  the  admission  of  the  deacons  themselves — 
when  he  saw  a  prospect  of  some  real  solid  happiness 
with  his  people,  this  disturbance  was  created,  the  foun- 
dation was  removed,  and  all  his  hopes  were  blighted. 
He  regarded  it  as  a  cold-blooded  business,  an  unkind 
cut;  it  grieved  him  at  his  heart. 

Ammons  had  never  sought  to  be  pastor  at  Mars 
Hill ;  he  had  never  desired  it ;  it  came  to  him  in  an  un- 
expected way  and  time,  and  yet  he  felt  that  the  hand 
of  the  Lord  was  in  it,  that  it  was  a  call  to  duty.  He 
accepted  the  work,  it  had  prospered  under  his  hand, 
and  in  this  he  rejoiced.  To  have  the  work  disturbed 
at  this  time  and  in  this  way  was  exceedingly  grievous. 

He  did  not  claim  a  life  tenure,  he  meant  to  retire  at 
the  end  of  the  pastoral  year ;  but  he  had  asked  the 
brethren  to  treat  him  kindly.  He  did  not  want  to  be 
kicked  out  or  frozen  out ;  he  had  a  right  to  be  con- 
sulted, and  this  had  not  been  done;  he  felt  that  it  was 
the  freezing-out  process. 

The  old  man  did  not  have  much  starch  in  his  make- 
up, but  he  was  a  man  of  refined  taste,  and  was  full  of 
push ;  but  there  must  be  more  polish :  forgetting  that 
starch  is  only  an  adjunct,  and  adds  nothing  to  the  worth 
of  the  fabric.  A  very  slazy  garment  may  be  made  to 
stand  upright  by  means  of  starch,  but  a  little  wear 
takes  out  the  starch  and  then  it  falls  into  a  heap  under 
its  own  weight.    Alas  for  starch  in  our  religious  work. 

For  a  number  of  months  the  church  was  without  a 
pastor ;  they  were  looking  for  their  man,  but  made 
several  failures ;  finally  they  called  Prof.  F.  A.  Clark. 
Clark  is  a  nervous,  pushing  little  man,  a  fine  scholar 


42  History  of  French  Broad  Association. 

and  a  good  preacher;  with  the  hearty  co-operation  of 
his  people  he  will  make  a  good  pastor ;  but  if  left  alone 
to  carry  the  burden  on  his  own  hands  he  can  expect 
nothing  but  failure.  Mars  Hill  ought  to  be  a  strong 
church,  and  if  anyone  can  develop  its  strength  it  is 
Clark,  if  he  can  only  infuse  his  active  spirit  into  his 
people.  He  is  a  devoted  Christian,  he  loves  the  church, 
loves  church  work ;  he  stood  closer  to  pastor  Amnions 
than  any  other  member  of  the  church,  and  Ammons 
will  always  hold  him  in  grateful  remembrance. 

The  history  of  the  ministry  of  the  French  Broad 
Association  would  be  the  history  of  the  Association. 
Would  that  I  had  the  material  to  enable  me  to  do  full 
justice  to  these  noble  men  of  God.  Of  the  earlier  min- 
istry but  bare  mention  can  be  made. 

There  was  a  brother  Turner,  probably  the  first  pastor 
of  Little  Ivy,  but  of  whose  life  and  work  nothing  defi- 
nite is  known. 

David  Blackwell  came  up  with  the  country  and  the 
people.  He  was  a  man  of  little  or  no  culture,  but  of 
good  common  sense  and  unblemished  character;  he 
was  pastor  for  some  time  at  Little  Ivy  and  Bull  Creek. 
He  was  a  quaint  character,  and  some  amusing  anec- 
dotes are  told  of  him. 

Jesse  Ammons  was  ordained  by  Little  Ivy  Church, 
and  for  a  number  of  years  was  esteemed  the  leading 
and  ablest  minister  in  the  body.  But,  alas,  he  fell  into 
sin,  was  excluded  from  the  church,  and  for  a  number 
of  years  lived  a  rather  reckless  life.  In  1856,  after  a 
terrible  struggle,  he  claimed  to  have  the  joys  of  salva- 
tion restored ;  he  returned  to  the  church,  was  reinstated 
in  membership,  and  soon  to  the  ministry,  in  which  he 
was  diligent  to  the  end  of  his  life.     He  was  an  able 


History  of  French  Broad  Association.  43 

man  and  a  man  of  broader  culture  than  most  of  his 
brethren,  and  his  last  days  were  full  of  labor,  and  were 
abundantly  fruitful.  His  death  was  felt  to  be  a  great 
calamity. 

William  Reese  was  ordained  by  Bull  Creek  Church, 
and  was  soon  called  to  be  its  pastor,  which  position  he 
held  to  the  end  of  life.  Reese  was  of  humble,  but  of 
respectful  origin,  being  the  son  of  a  poor  farmer. 

He  embraced  religion  when  a  young  man,  joined  the 
church,  and  very  soon  began  to  preach.  He  had  but 
little  education,  but  he  was  a  man  of  fine  common 
sense;  he  loved  God  and  humanity,  and  devoted  his 
life  with  all  that  that  meant  to  preaching  to  lost  men 
the  gospel  of  salvation  from  sin.  He  was  a  man  of  one 
book — the  Bible.  God's  word  was  the  armory  whence 
he  drew  his  weapons,  and  his  sermons  were  made  up 
of  scripture  quotations  so  nicely  dove-tailed  together 
that  to  the  listener  he  seemed  a  very  evangel,  delivering 
a  message  from  the  spirit  world.  The  writer  heard 
him  when  a  small  boy,  and  to  his  latest  acquaintance 
with  him  his  words  made  his  heart  to  burn.  All  who 
knew  him  loved  him,  and  yet  he  lived  and  died  in 
poverty,  his  only  reward  being  the  consciousness  of 
having  done  his  duty.  He  died  about  1863,  and  sleeps 
in  an  unmarked  grave. 

Luke  L.  Branson  was  cotemporary  with  Reese,  and 
was  ordained  by  the  same  church — Bull  Creek.  Bran- 
son was  never  popular  as  a  preacher,  but  esteemed  as 
a  good  man  and  a  wise  counsellor.  He  was  the  first 
in  the  French  Broad  to  preach  in  a  conversational  tone ; 
this  in  part  accounts  for  his  want  of  popularity,  for  it 
was  generally  held  that  the  man  called  of  God  to  preach 
the  gospel  must  come  with  the  gospel  tone,  which  wa? 


44  History  of  French  Broad  Association. 

a  sort  of  solemn,  sing-song  tone  and  ending  in  a  pro- 
longed a-h,  a-h.  Branson  was  the  most  cultured  man 
in  the  Association  in  his  day ;  a  man  of  strong  convic- 
tions, and  always  had  the  courage  of  his  convictions. 
He  was  Calvinistic  in  doctrine,  and  rather  inclined  to 
hy-per  Calvinism ;  but  with  all  his  might  he  preached 
that  men  should  repent,  that  Christ  Jesus  is  the  way 
of  life,  and  that  sinners  must  enter  this  way  freely, 
and  by  loving  consent;  that  life  is  offered  to  sinners 
as  sinners,  in  the  gospel,  and  if  we  reject  it,  which  we 
have  power  to  do,  we  shall  perish  world  without  end. 
His  worth  was  never  known  till  after  his  death. 

H.  W.  Gilbert  came  on  the  stage  about  1845.  He, 
like  most  of  the  preachers  of  his  time,  had  only  a  lim- 
ited knowledge  of  letters,  but  he  was  full  of  zeal  for  the 
cause  of  truth,  and  full  of  love  for  souls.  His  labors 
were  principally  confined  to  the  French  Broad  Associa- 
tion ;  he  labored  much  in  revival  meetings,  and  left 
many  seals  to  his  ministry.  He  was  of  a  lovely  spirit 
and  won  the  affections  of  the  people.  William  Sprinkle 
was  from  one  of  the  oldest  and  best  families  in  Western 
N.  C.  He  was  converted  and  united  with  the  church  at 
Gabriel's  Creek  about  1840.  He  was  about  twenty 
years  of  age.  Soon,  under  pressure  of  his  feelings,  he 
began  to  labor  in  public,  especially  in  the  prayer-meet- 
ings. He  was  a  man  of  ordinary  mental  capacity,  but 
with  a  great  soul ;  and  he  through  life  maintained  a 
character  above  reproach.  He  labored  but  little  in  the 
pastorate,  serving  only  two  churches,  West  Fork  (now 
Grapevine),  and  Foster's  Creek,  both  of  which  were 
built  up  under  his  labors.  He  died  at  a  ripe  age, 
mourned  by  a  large  circle  of  brethren  and  friends. 

Levi  Deweese  was  the  son  of  Garret  Deweese,  the 


History  of  French  Broad  Association.  45 

leader  in  the  Big  Ivy  Association.  He  entered  the 
ministry  about  i860,  in  mature  manhood,  and  for  a 
number  of  years  was  assiduous  in  labors. 

At  the  close  of  the  Civil  War,  in  connection  with 
Rev.  Jacob  Wild,  he  was  instrumental  in  resuscitating 
Marshall  and  Mars  Hill  churches,  which  had  almost 
fallen  to  pieces  during  these  troublous  times.  Deweese 
was  a  very  impulsive  man,  and  it  was  his  great  earnest- 
ness that  gave  him  power  with  the  people.  He  was  a 
great  Sunday  school  man,  and  did  good  work  in  this 
department  of  Christian  work.  He  served  Mars  Hill, 
Bear  Creek  and  Gabriel's  Creek  churches  for  a  number 
of  years  as  pastor.     He  died  about  1900. 

William  Keith  was  converted  after  he  had  passed  the 
meridian  of  life :  he  then  lived  in  Washington  County, 
Tenn.  He  soon  united  with  the  Indian  Creek  (now 
Irwin)  Baptist  church,  and  immediately  commenced 
preaching.  Keith  was  a  born  leader  among  men.  In 
sport,  in  fun  and  frolic,  in  revelry  and  amusement,  in 
brawls,  quarrels  and  fisticuff  battles  he  always  went 
in  the  lead,  and  now  that  he  was  converted  he  showed 
the  same  ardor  of  soul  in  fighting  against  sin.  He 
threw  himself,  soul,  mind  and  strength  into  whatever 
he  did.  He  was  ordained  by  Rev.  Reese  Baylus,  a 
noted  preacher  of  his  day,  assisted  by  other  brethren, 
of  whom  Robert  Pattison  was  one. 

Keith  commenced  preaching  at  Flag  Pond,  on  the 
head  of  Indian  Creek,  near  the  N.  C.  line,  and  soon 
gathered  a  membership  sufficient  to  organize  a  church, 
becoming  its  first  pastor,  and  remained  such  till  his 
death.  As  pastor  he  had  charge  of  Flag  Pond,  Little 
Ivy  and  Gabriel's  Creek.    His  ministry  was  brief,  but 


46  History  of  French  Broad  Association. 

full  of  work  and  good  fruits ;  his  life  of  devotion.  He 
left  a  legacy  to  those  who  shall  come  after. 

Robert  Pattison  was  of  humble  origin,  and  he  grew 
up  to  manhood  in  the  grossest  ignorance.  When  about 
twenty  years  of  age  he  married  into  one  of  the  leading 
families  of  the  country.  He  did  not  know  a  letter  in 
the  book,  but  his  wife  had  a  limited  knowledge  of  let- 
ters. He  soon  professed  religion  and  joined  the  church 
at  Flat  Creek,  and  was  baptized  by  Stephen  Morgan. 
Being  impressed  with  the  duty  of  preaching  the  gos- 
pel he  made  it  known  to  the  church,  and  was  licensed 
'"to  preach  the  gospel  wherever  God  in  His  Providence 
should  cast  his  lot."  It  was  a  poor  beginning,  his 
stammering  and  haggling,  his  uncouth  language  made 
his  hearers  to  blush  and  covered  his  friends  with 
shame.  His  wife  undertook  to  teach  him  to  read,  and 
he  proved  an  apt  student.  Now  he  became  a  student  of 
the  Scriptures,  and  withal  his  tongue  seemed  to  have 
been  loosed.  From  a  knowledge  of  the  person  of 
Christ  as  the  Saviour  of  those  who  believe,  he  arose  in 
the  knowledge  of  the  word,  to  the  knowledge  of  God, 
of  Christ,  and  of  the  Holy  Ghost ;  one  God,  sovereign 
in  nature  and  grace,  God  over  all.  blessed  forever  more. 
He  had  come  to  know  the  truth,  and  was  made  free  in 
the  largest  sense.  He  was  called  to  the  care  of  Big 
Ivy  Church,  where  he  was  ordained,  and  he  remained 
with  this  church  till  his  death,  about  the  space  of  forty 
years. 

Pattison  was  a  man  of  affairs,  business  tact,  and 
energy.  Though  penniless  himself,  his  wife  had  a  little 
property,  and  by  dint  of  application,  force  of  will,  and 
frugal  management  they  acquired  a  competency.  Work- 
ing by  day  and  reading  by  a  pine  knot  light  by  night  he 


History  of  French  Broad  Association.  47 

increased  his  fortune,  both  materially  and  mentally ; 
he  grew  in  grace  and  the  knowledge  of  the  truth  till 
he  became  a  giant  among  men.  His  labors  were  more 
widespread  than  any  of  his  cotemporaries ;  he  labored 
much  in  revival  meetings,  which  were  usually  con- 
ducted by  the  pastor,  assisted  by  some  of  his  brother 
pastors.  These  meetings  were  generally  of  great  spirit- 
ual power,  in  which  the  conversions  were  so  marked  as 
to  leave  little  room  to  doubt  their  genuineness.  Modern 
flaming  evangelists  were  unknown  in  those  days ;  all 
God's  ministers  were  evangelists,  whose  hearts  were 
aflame  with  love  to  God  and  souls  for  whom  Christ 
died.  They  labored,  not  to  count  a  long  list  of  names 
that  might  redound  to  their  glory  through  fulsome 
articles  in  the  public  prints,  but  to  lead  the  people  to 
trust  in  the  Lord  Jesus  that  they  might  be  saved.  They 
gloried  in  the  cross  of  Christ,  by  whom  they  were 
crucified  unto  the  world,  and  the  world  unto  them.  In 
his  day  Pattison  was  a  leading  spirit  in  the  churches 
and  among  his  brethren ;  being  a  man  of  peace,  he 
sought  to  promote  harmony  in  the  churches  and  among 
the  brethren.  For  years  he  mourned  over  the  division 
in  the  denomination,  and  did  all  that  he  could  to  heal 
the  breach,  and  none  rejoiced  more  when  peace  was 
restored  than  he,  and  it  was  largely  through  his  labors 
and  influence  that  this  was  accomplished.  Pattison 
was  not  a  theologian,  but  he  was  deeply  read  in  the 
Scriptures,  and  accepting  them  as  a  revelation  from 
God,  his  aim  and  purpose  was  to  fix  the  truth  of  Scrip- 
ture in  the  minds  and  hearts  of  the  people,  as  a  nail 
fastened  in  a  sure  place,  believing  that  the  entrance  of 
God's  word  gives  light;  and  this  he  did  with  great 
power. 


48  History  of  French  Broad  Association. 

Dr.  Wingate,  president  of  Wake  Forest  College,  said 
of  him :  "He  is  the  grandest  man  I  ever  saw ;  he  is 
just  sublime,  his  eloquence  is  perfectly  grand  and  over- 
powering." 

As  pastor  he  served  Big  Ivy,  Flat  Creek,  Little  Ivy, 
Cane  River,  and  for  brief  spaces,  many  other  churches. 

He  was  a  member  of  Vance  Lodge  of  F.  A.  M.,  at 
Morgan  Hill,  N.  C.  By  order  of  the  lodge  the  follow- 
ing notice  of  his  death  was  read  in  open  lodge  and 
ordered  to  be  spread  upon  its  Minutes : 

"Precious  in  the  sight  of  the  Lord  is  the  death  of  his 
saints." 

"Departed  this  life  on  the  19th  day  of  October,  in 
the  68th  year  of  his  age,  Elder  Robert  Patterson,  of 
Buncombe  County,  N.  C.  Bro.  Patterson  was  born 
and  grew  up  to  manhood  in  Buncombe ;  here  he  pro- 
fessed religion  and  joined  Flat  Creek  Baptist  Church, 
then  under  pastoral  care  of  Elder  S.  Morgan.  While 
a  member  of  this  church,  and  in  obedience  to  the  dic- 
tates of  the  Holy  Spirit,  and  under  the  conviction  of 
duty,  he  entered  upon  the  work  of  the  ministry ;  and 
the  sequel  shows  that  he  was  not  mistaken.  About 
1840  he  removed  his  membership,  to  Big  Ivy  church, 
and  remained  identified  with  this  church  till  his  death. 
During  thirty-six  years  he  was  pastor  of  this  church 
either  alone  or  associated  with  some  one  of  his  brethren 
in  the  ministry.  Many  are  the  seals  to  his  ministry,  in 
almost  every  county  in  Western  N.  C.  and  portions  of 
East  Tennessee.  He  was  eminently  a  man  of  God. 
Cold  and  heat,  and  most  and  dry,  were  alike  to  him; 
he  traveled  extensively  and  labored  assiduously  for  the 


History  of  French  Broad  Association.  49 

glory  of  the  Master  and  for  souls  for  whom  Jesus 
died.  Often  have  I  known  him  to  labor  night  and  day 
in  revival  meetings,  when  others  would  have  been  in 
bed.  When  Bro.  Patterson  entered  the  ministry  he 
could  with  difficulty  read  a  hymn,  and  it  was  more  diffi- 
cult still  to  read  the  Scriptures ;  but  by  diligence  and 
perseverance  he  became  learned  in  the  Scriptures.  It 
may  be  truly  said  of  him  that  he  was  a  student  all  his 
life.  Elder  Patterson  was  not  what  is  called  an  "able 
preacher,"  but  he  was  a  good  preacher — never  aiming 
at  self-aggrandizement — but  striving  to  glorify  God  in 
bringing  souls  to  Christ.  His  earnestness  and  native 
eloquence  was  perfectly  entrancing  at  times ;  and  to 
many  it  was  a  matter  of  astonishment  that  one  un- 
learned could  so  master  thought  and  language.  Often 
have  I  seen  whole  congregations  melted  to  tears  under 
his  fervent  appeals. 

No  man  was  sounder  in  the  Faith  than  Bro.  Patter- 
son, and  for  the  Faith  he  contended  for  more  than 
forty  years.  Bro.  Patterson  was  a  man  of  peace.  Noth- 
ing so  grieved  him  as  divisions  and  dissensions  among 
brethren ;  and  through  all  this  country  his  counsels 
have  had  much  to  do  in  allaying  strife  and  healing 
divisions — the  reward  of  the  peace-maker  is  his.  Lovely 
in  his  nature  he  was  beloved  by  his  brethren,  and  many 
were  the  sad  hearts  when  the  news  of  his  death  was 
borne  on  the  wings  of  the  wind.  Few  of  us  knew  how 
much  we  loved  him  till  he  was  taken  from  us.  O  how 
the  memory  of  his  gentleness  comes  back  to  us  like  the 
early  dew  upon  the  herbs. 

"  We  shall  meet  but  we  shall  miss  him." 

His  seat  will  be  vacant  here ;  but  with  Abraham  and 
Isaac  and  Jacob  he  is  gone  to  sit  down  in  the  kingdom 
4 


5<3  History  of  French  Broad  Association. 

of  God.  Let  his  brethren  that  mourn  his  absence  imi- 
tate his  virtues  and  follow  him  as  he  followed  Christ. 
His  last  illness  was  short,  but  very  painful.  Calmly 
now  he  sleeps  in  Jesus,  whose  servant  he  was : 

"  Asleep  in  Jesus,  blessed  sleep, 
From  which  none  ever  wakes  to  weep, 
A  calm  and  undisturbed  repose 
Unbroken  by  the  last  of  foes." 

"  Servant  of  God,  rest  from  thy  loved  employ  ; 
Eeleased  from  pain  and  toil — dwell,  now  in  perfect  joy.'' 

"May  God  deal  very  tenderly  with  the  weeping 
widow  and  the  bereaved  children,  and  may  his  mantle 
fall  upon  one  who  will  never  let  dust  accumulate  upon 
it.  "John  Ammons, 

For  the  Lodge." 

Stephen  Morgan  was  one  of  the  oldest  ministers,  and 
was  identified  with  the  Association  from  its  organiza- 
tion. He  was  a  man  of  strong  character,  and  indomitable 
will ;  rugged  in  nature,  he  was  inclined  to  be  rugged  in 
his  ways,  and  he  made  himself  to  be  feared  as  well  as 
to  be  loved.  He  preached  the  gospel  for  more  than 
fifty  years,  and  died  in  a  ripe  old  age  without  a  spot 
upon  his  character.  He  was  pastor  at  Flat  Creek  for 
more  than  forty  years,  and  was  nominally  the  pastor 
till  his  death,  although  for  several  years  he  had  been 
laid  aside  by  reason  of  infirmity.  His  were  days  of 
self-denial,  of  sacrifice,  of  toil,  of  suffering,  for  Christ's 
sake.  For  forty  years,  through  heat  and  cold,  through 
wet  and  dry,  he  rode  monthly  on  horseback  to  Grassy 
Creek  to  minister  to  the  little  flock  at  that  place,  and 
during  all  this  time  he  never  missed  an  appointment. 
Morgan's  lot  was  a  hard  one,  and  he  was  peculiarly 
fitted  to  fill  it :  his  was  pioneer  work,  and  well  and  truly 


History  of  French  Broad  Association.  51 

he  did  it.  He  not  only  had  to  master  the  difficulties 
which  were  unavoidable  in  dealing  with  an  uneducated 
and  crude  people,  whose  moral  standard  was  not  very 
high,  but  he  had  to  face  difficulties  arising  from  another 
source.  The  Methodists  had  entered  the  country  with 
its  first  settlers,  and  were  much  more  numerous  than 
the  Baptists,  and  to  add  to  the  seriousness  of  the  prob- 
lem, most  of  the  intelligence  and  culture  was  with  the 
Methodists,  and  their  ministers  were  better  educated. 
Morgan  was  the  man  for  the  hour  and  the  occasion. 
Bold  by  nature,  and  being  well  grounded  in  Scripture 
doctrines,  he  met  his  opponents  with  the  Sword  of  the 
Spirit,  and  never  did  his  colors  trail  in  the  dust.  The 
Methodists  never  liked  him,  yet  they  believed  him  to 
be  a  Christian,  honest  in  his  convictions  and  upright 
in  his  motives,  yet  they  feared  him  and  never  dared 
to  meet  him  in  open  combat.  His  progress  was  slow. 
but  he  builded  better  than  he  knew,  and  the  efforts  of 
his  opponents  reflected  on  their  own  heads.  The  Bap- 
tists increased  and  the  Methodists  decreased,  and 
ground  that  was  wholly  occupied  by  Methodists  is  now 
Baptist  ground. 

It  was  the  custom  for  Methodist  preachers  to  stig- 
matize the  Baptists  as  mean-spirited,  uncharitable  and 
ignorant;  this  because  they  rejected  infant  baptism: 
and  would  recognize  no  act  for  baptism  but  immersion, 
and  practiced  Close  Communion.  The  notorious  W.  G. 
Brownlow  spent  one  year  on  the  Buncombe  Circuit, 
and  he  speaks  of  Morgan  as  "an  old  man  preaching  in 
the  wilderness  of  Judea.  and  saying  repent,  for  the 
Kingdom  of  Heaven  is  at  hand :  he  was  clothed  in  a 
rough  garment,  with  a  leather  girdle  about  his  loins, 
and  his  meat  was  locusts  and  wild  honev." 


52  History  of  French  Broad  Association. 

This  same  Methodist  preacher  said  of  the  Baptists : 
"By  day  and  by  night  their  cry  was  water,  water,  water, 
as  if  heaven  were  an  island,  situated  somewhere  in  the 
British  Sea,  and  we  all  had  to  swim  to  get  there." 
Nar.  of  Life,  p.  257. 

All  Methodist  preachers  were  not  alike ;  Brownlow 
was  an  exception ;  but  these  are  specimens  of  the  gibes 
and  sneers  that  were  thrown  at  the  Baptists.  Brown- 
low's  thrust  was  intended  as  a  burlesque,  but  it  was 
an  encomium.  Morgan  did  go  about  preaching  in  the 
wilderness,  he  did  preach  Repentance  toward  God  and 
Faith  in  the  Lord  Jesus  as  the  only  way  of  escape  for 
sinners,  and  for  this  he  deserves  praise. 

His  labors  were  spread  over  a  wide  field,  and  were 
abundantly  blessed ;  he  had  much  to  do  in  building  up 
the  older  churches  in  the  French  Broad  Association. 
He  was  recognized  as  a  wise  counsellor  and  a  safe 
leader,  and  his  assistance  was  much  sought  when  diffi- 
culties arose  in  the  churches.  Many  amusing  anecdotes 
are  told  which  illustrate  his  wit.  Riding  along  the 
road  one  day  he  met  a  woman  who  came  up  smiling 
and  extending  her  hand  said,  "How-da-do,  Bro.  Mor- 
gan." He  took  the  proffered  hand,  and  looked  at  her 
with  inquiring  gaze.  "Don't  you  know  me,"  she  in- 
quired. "No,"  he  replied.  She  then  told  him  her 
name,  upon  which  he  said,  in  his  peculiar  style,  "O,  yes, 
I  know  you,  and  never  knew  any  good  of  you,  either ; 
gooy-bye." 

It  shows  the  style  of  the  man ;  he  hated  shams  and 
frauds,  and  always  took  pleasure  in  uncovering,  ex- 
posing and  rebuking  them.  He  loved  to  preach  and 
to  hear  preaching,  but  could  not  stand  botch  work  in 
the  pulpit,  and  he  was  often  known  to  pull  the  coat- 


History  of  French  Broad  Association.  53 

tail  of  his  brother  if  he  did  not  please  him,  or  rather, 
if  he  thought  he  was  making  a  failure.  It  is  hard  to 
imagine  what  our  present  condition  would  be  had  we 
had  no  Morgan  to  lay  the  foundation  and  blaze  the 
way.  He  was  a  great  and  good  man,  and  we  who  knew 
him  best  miss  him  most.  The  Morgan  spirit  hovers 
over  this  Association  till  this  day.  Long  may  his 
memory  live. 

Rev.  L.  W.  Sams  was  originally  of  Washington 
County,  Tenn.,  and  of  a  good  family.  He  entered  the 
ministry  in  mature  manhood ;  but,  like  most  of  the 
brethren,  his  education  was  limited,  but  by  diligent  ap- 
plication he  secured  an  extensive  knowledge  of  the 
Scriptures  and  was  an  active  minister  for  more  than 
forty  years. 

Sams  was  a  man  of  an  ardent  temperament,  what 
he  did  he  did  with  his  might.  He  loved  to  preach  be- 
cause he  believed  it  was  God's  appointed  means  of 
saving  the  lost.  Preaching  with  him  was  not  a  pro- 
fession but  a  Divine  calling,  and  he  felt  that  "woe  is  me 
if  I  preach  not  the  gospel."  His  earnestness  carried 
great  weight  and  made  him  a  winner  of  souls ;  he  was 
a  successful  revivalist.  He  was  pastor  at  Little  Ivy, 
Big  Ivy,  Flat  Creek,  Gabriel's  Creek,  Forks  of  Ivy, 
Marshall,  Cane  River,  Morgan  Hill  and  Mars  Hill ; 
his  most  important  work  was  done  at  Mars  Hill. 

For  many  years  he  gave  little  attention  to  the  Sun- 
day school  work ;  but  in  his  later  years  he  became  en- 
thusiastic in  the  work  and  told  his  brethren  that  the 
mistake  of  his  life  was  that  he  did  not  enter  it  sooner. 
Sams  was  a  man  of  a  progressive  spirit,  he  was  ready 
for  every  good  word  and  work ;  he  was  not  what  is 
called  a  doctrinal  preacher,  his  strength  consisted  more 


54  History  of  French  Broad  Association. 

in  the  power  to  enforce  the  truth  than  to  interpret  it — 
he  was  a  strong  man  in  his  day. 

J.  W.  Hooker  was  the  son  of  Absalom  Hooker,  one 
of  the  most  devoted  men  I  ever  knew.  Hooker  was  a 
poor  man,  and  with  the  poor  facilities  for  learning  he 
could  not  educate  his  boy.  Jim,  as  he  was  called,  grew 
up  to  manhood  an  awkward,  gawky  boy;  he  embraced 
religion  when  he  was  about  twenty  years  old,  and 
united  with  the  church  at  Big  Ivy. 

He  soon  expressed  a  desire  to  preach,  and  though 
none  were  impressed  that  there  was  much  in  him,  yet 
the  church  licensed  him.  For  some  time  there  was  not 
much  development  in  him,  and  his  failures  were  the 
subject  of  remark  and  sometimes  jests  by  the  light- 
minded,  but  he  soon  began  to  improve,  and  it  was  dis- 
covered that  he  had  both  brains  and  common  sense. 
He  was  the  first  native  preacher  to  preach  in  a  conver- 
sational tone,  and  this  operated  as  a  bar  to  his  popu- 
larity, for  it  was  generally  held  that  to  preach  one  must 
have  a  holy  tone  (whatever  that  might  be),  and  Hooker 
had  it  not. 

Some  of  the  more  discerning  brethren  thought  they 
saw  something  in  him  to  encourage  hope,  and  they  be- 
gan to  speak  words  of  encouragement  to  him,  and  this 
had  a  good  effect;  Hooker  began  to  grow.  He  was 
ordained  and  soon  called  to  the  care  of  churches. 

About  1850  he  was  called,  in  connection  with  H.  W. 
Gilbert,  to  the  care  of  Flag  Pond  Church,  which  he 
served  for  several  years.  He  was  then  called  to  Cane 
River,  where  he  served  till  the  Civil  War  with  great 
satisfaction  to  the  people  and  with  a  large  measure  of 
success.  In  1859-60  he  was  a  student  at  Mars  Hill 
under  Prof.  J.  B.  Marsh.    He  was  a  good  student,  but 


History  of  French  Broad  Association.  55 

took  special  delight  in  the  study  of  mental  science  and 
logic.  He  was  rather  dull  in  mathematics,  but  made 
good  progress  in  English  Grammar  and  English  liter- 
ature. He  did  not  own  many  books,  but  he  made  good 
use  of  those  he  had,  and  he  was  especially  deeply  read 
in  the  Scriptures. 

As  a  preacher,  in  the  truest  sense  he,  probably,  had 
no  equal  in  Western  N.  C.  His  power  of  unfolding 
truth  was  wonderful,  and  the  people  delighted  to  sit 
under  his  ministry  and  receive  instruction  from  his 
lips.  As  a  pastor  he  was  a  success  wherever  he  la- 
bored ;  but  he  loved  to  labor  in  revivals  and  had  won- 
derful success  in  the  work.  The  last  few  years  of  his 
life  he  spent  in  the  New  Found  Association. 

W.  K.  Briggs  was  one  of  three  triplets,  sons  of  Thos. 
Briggs,  of  Ivy,  Madison  County.  He  was  converted 
when  a  young  man,  joined  the  church  at  Little  Ivy, 
and  was  baptized  by  Elder  Wm.  Keith. 

Under  stress  of  feeling  he  began  to  talk  in  the 
social  and  prayer-meetings ;  no  one  had  thought  of  his 
ever  making  a  preacher  till  he  was  actually  preaching — 
it  was  a  new  departure.  He  was  licensed  to  preach, 
but  it  was  some  years  before  he  was  ordained ;  he  felt 
that  he  was  called  to  exhort,  rather  than  to  preach,  and 
this  he  did  with  more  power  than  any  other  person  that 
I  ever  knew.  His  life  was  rich  in  spiritual  fruitage,  a 
great  portion  of  it  being  devoted  to  pastoral  work,  but 
during  the  last  few  years  of  his  life  he  retired  from  the 
ministry,  saying  that  he  felt  that  his  mind,  like  his 
body,  was  failing,  and  he  feared  that  he  might  say 
something  that  was  wrong.  He  died  about  81  years  of 
age,  mourned  by  a  large  circle  of  loving  friends  and  a 
bereaved  family. 


56  History  of  French  Broad  Association. 

Brother  Briggs  served  as  pastor  Little  Ivy,  Middle 
Fork,  Forks  of  Ivy,  and  Bethel,  and  was  much  beloved 
by  his  people.  His  funeral  was  conducted  by  John 
Amnions,  with  whom  he  had  been  happily  associated 
for  fifty  years. 

John  Amnions  was  the  son  of  Stephen  Amnions,  and 
grandson  of  Ephraim  Amnions,  one  of  the  first  settlers 
of  the  country.  The  only  schools  of  his  childhood  were 
what  was  called  Old  Field  Schools ;  to  these  he  was  sent 
a  few  months  each  year  from  his  ninth  year  up  to 
nineteen.  His  only  text-books  were  the  Blue-back 
Speller  and  Fowler's  Arithmetic.  He  soon  mastered 
the  Blue-back  and  Fowler  to  the  Rule  of  Three ;  this 
was  thought  to  be  a  wonderful  accomplishment  for  one 
of  his  age.  The  boy  delighted  in  reading,  but  his  home 
afforded  nothing  but  the  Bible  and  a  song  book ;  these 
he  read  with  avidity,  especially  the  Bible;  this  he  read 
from  Genesis  to  Revelation  over  and  over  again,  till 
he  could  almost  repeat  it  from  memory.  He  grew  up 
to  manhood  with  no  other  literary  advantages  save  a 
few  books  that  an  old  Baptist  preacher  loaned  him; 
these  were  good  books  and  he  derived  much  profit  and 
a  great  deal  of  pleasure  from  reading  them.  He  was 
not  a  mean  boy,  his  father  having  taken  special  pains 
to  instruct  him  in  the  things  that  were  right  and  to 
warn  him  against  the  wrong,  but  he  was  a  boy,  after  all, 
and  delighted  in  fun  and  frolic,  and  was  always  leader 
in  every  game  of  mischief.  He  professed  religion  in 
his  twentieth  year  and  united  with  the  church  at 
Gabriel's  Creek,  and  was  baptized  by  Rev.  Robert  Pat- 
tison.  Soon  thereafter  he  married  Miss  Sallie  E. 
Jervis,  daughter  of  E.  Jervis,  of  Madison  County;  his 
wife,  like  himself,  was  poor  and  uneducated.    This  was 


History  of  French  Broad  Association.  57 

October,  1850.  Soon  after  marriage  he  was  impressed 
with  the  duty  of  preaching,  but  the  very  thought 
frightened  him ;  to  be  a  preacher  would  be  the  highest 
honor  to  which  one  could  attain,  but  he,  an  ignorant 
boy,  what  could  he  do?  He  could  never  preach.  It 
troubled  him,  and  he  tried  to  put  the  thought  out  of 
mind,  but  it  would  not  down.  He  kept  his  impressions 
to  himself,  not  even  telling  his  wife,  hoping  that  the 
impressions  might  leave  him ;  it  was  a  terrible  struggle. 
For  four  years  he  prayed  and  groaned  and  agonized, 
but  it  was  to  be  excused,  he  wanted  to  have  his  own 
will  and  way,  not  God's  will,  and  yet  he  prayed,  "Thy 
will  be  done ;"  but  it  was  in  the  spirit  of  rebellion. 

In  the  intensity  of  his  sufferings  he  unbosomed  him- 
self to  Deacon  John  Ramsay,  in  whom  he  had  the  ut- 
most confidence ;  his  purpose  was  to  seek  advice,  and 
he  plead  with  Ramsay  to  keep  his  secret,  but  Ramsay 
told  the  pastor,  and  after  a  consultation  among  the 
brethren  they  said  he  ought  to  preach,  and  in  the  au- 
tumn of  1854,  at  the  call  of  the  church,  he  entered  the 
ministry. 

In  October,  1856,  he  was  ordained  by  East  Fork 
Church,  of  which  he  was  a  member,  and  entered  at  once 
on  the  active  work  of  the  ministry,  and  in  which  he 
has  continued  without  a  break  till  the  present  time, 
1907,  covering  a  period  of  fifty-three  years. 

His  first  work  after  ordination  was  in  a  revival  at 
Bull  Creek  Church,  and  the  first  person  he  baptized 
was  a  negro,  whom  he  baptized  into  the  fellowship  of 
this  church.  Immediately  after  this  he  was  called  to 
aid  pastor  Reese  in  a  meeting  at  Sugar  Camp  Branch, 
in  which  meeting  there  were  more  than  thirty  profes- 
sions of  religion,  and  more  than  twenty  added  to  the 


58  History  of  French  Broad  Association. 

church ;  this  was  his  first  experience  in  conducting  re- 
vival meetings.  In  1857  he  was  engaged  in  mission 
work  in  the  Union  Association  in  Buncombe  and  Hen- 
derson counties.  He  held  meetings  with  North  Swan- 
nanoa.  Bethel  and  Concord  churches ;  Bethel  was  situ- 
ated where  the  town  of  Brevard  now  stands,  and  finally 
became  Brevard  Baptist  Church.  He  was  very  suc- 
cessful in  all  these  meetings,  there  being  quite  a  num- 
ber of  conversions  at  each  of  these  meetings,  and  the 
churches  were  much  strengthened ;  he  was  called  to  the 
care  of  these  churches,  and  this  was  the  beginning  of 
his  pastoral  work.  It  was  under  his  influence  that 
Marshall  Baptist  Church  was  organized,  but  under  the 
pastoral  care  of  Rev.  Stephen  YVallen.  Amnions  se- 
cured an  appropriation  from  the  Domestic  Mission 
Board  at  Marion,  Ala.,  of  seventy-five  dollars  for  the 
support  of  the  work  at  Marshall,  this  support  was  given 
for  1858-59-60;  Amnions  being  the  pastor  for  1859-60. 

Ammons  was  very  early  sensibly  impressed  with  his 
need  of  better  educational  preparation  for  the  work  of 
the  ministry,  and  finally,  at  every  risk,  he  entered  Mars 
Hill  College  as  a  student. 

He  was  then  twenty-seven  years  of  age,  with  a  wife 
and  three  children  to  support.  He  had  accumulated 
a  little  property,  but  in  thirteen  months  in  school  this 
was  all  consumed  and  a  debt  created  amounting  to  one 
hundred  and  twenty-five  dollars. 

In  the  meantime  he  had.  under  appointment  of  the 
Western  Baptist  Convention,  spent  the  year  from  Sep- 
tember, 1858,  to  September,  1859,  in  mission  work  in 
Yancey  County ;  it  was  a  splendid  year's  work.  There 
were  more  than  one  hundred  conversions  in  connection 


History  of  French  Broad  Association.  59 

with  his  work,  and  he  baptized  seventy-five  persons 
during  the  year. 

His  progress  in  study  was  very  rapid,  accomplishing 
more,  his  teacher  said,  than  any  other  two  of  his 
pupils.  He  had  never  studied  English  Grammar  a  day 
till  he  entered  Mars  Hill  College,  but  at  the  close  of 
thirteen  months,  the  time  which  he  attended  school,  he 
came  out  an  accredited  grammarian ;  this  was  in  Feb- 
ruary, 1 86 1. 

In  February,  1861,  he  took  charge  of  Burnsville 
Academy,  with  encouraging  prospects,  but  the  Civil 
War  opening  up  in  April  blighted  all  his  hopes;  and 
after  a  five  months'  term  he  returned  to  Mars  Hill. 
During  the  first  two  years  of  the  war  he  spent  most  of 
his  time  as  missionary  to  the  North  Carolina  troops 
in  the  Western  Army.  He  marched  with  them  on  their 
marches,  slept  in  their  tents,  and  preached  to  them  in 
their  camps ;  but  his  health  failng  he  resigned,  and  was 
called  to  the  care  of  the  Waynesville  Baptist  Church ; 
here,  till  the  close  of  the  war  in  1865,  he  conducted  a 
school  for  young  ladies  and  children,  and  ministered 
to  the  church  as  its  pastor. 

In  February,  1866,  he  returned  to  Mars  Hill,  and  in 
April  following  he  was  elected  President  of  Mars  Hill 
College,  to  succeed  Prof.  Pinkney  Rollins,  resigned. 
Here  he  remained  till  February,  1868.  The  school 
under  his  management  was  a  complete  success ;  at  the 
same  time  he  was  pastor  of  Hominy  Baptist  Church  in 
Buncombe  County. 

In  1867,  he  purchased  a  small  farm  at  Morgan  Hill 
in  Buncombe  County,  to  which  he  removed  in  1868. 
This  year  he  taught  at  Hominy  in  Buncombe,  the  best 
paying  school  he  ever  taught;  the  five  months  paying 


60  History  of  French  Broad  Association. 

five  hundred  dollars.  Closing  the  school  at  Hominy  he 
decided  to  quit  teaching,  but  the  people  at  Morgan  Hill 
would  not  let  him  rest.  Yielding  to  their  solicitations 
he  taught  at  that  place  for  one  year ;  at  the  same  time 
he  was  pastor  at  Locust  Old  Fields,  and  Bethel  in  Hay- 
wood County,  and  at  Morgan  Hill  in  Buncombe.  The 
three  churches  paid  him  one  hundred  and  eighty-five 
dollars. 

In  the  fall  of  1869  he  was  appointed  Sunday  School 
Missionary  by  the  North  Carolina  Sunday  School  As- 
sociaton,  a  society  organized  at  Raleigh  for  the  promo- 
tion of  Baptist  Sunday  school  work  in  the  State.  It 
was  at  this  time  that  the  controversy,  which  has  here- 
tofore been  alluded  to,  over  the  sub-Sunday  school 
work  arose.  Amnions,  among  the  preachers,  stood  al- 
most alone  in  advocacy  of  distinctive  Baptist  schools, 
but  he  won  the  fight  in  the  end,  and  the  nature  and 
character  of  the  Sunday  school  work  in  Western  North 
Carolina  is  due  more  to  him  than  to  any  other  person, 
for  his  labors  extended  over  the  State,  from  Raleigh 
to  the  Tennessee  line. 

The  time  which  he  devoted  to  this  work  in  North 
Carolina  was  two  years ;  one  year  of  this  time  he  was 
under  commission  of  the  Sunday  School  Board  of  the 
Southern  Baptist  Convention,  then  located  at  Memphis, 
Tenn.  While  engaged  in  this  work  he  received  a  sal- 
ary of  seven  hundred  and  fifty  dollars  per  annum.  The 
year  1872  he  spent  as  Superintendent  of  Sunday  School 
Work  in  East  Tennessee,  under  appointment  of  the 
Baptist  General  Association  of  East  Tennessee. 

The  year  1872  was  a  time  of  great  political  excite- 
ment and  trouble.     After  the  close  of  the  war  an  or- 


History  of  French  Broad  Association.  6l 

ganization  known  as  "The  Union  League"'  had  been 
introduced  into  the  country.  All  who  had  been  Union 
men  during  the  war  became  members  of  this  organi- 
zation ;  but  unfortunately  all  who  had  been  bushwhack- 
ers and  plunderers  from  both  sides  rushed  into  the  or- 
ganization and  stirred  up  all  the  strife  and  confusion 
of  which  they  were  capable.  The  negroes  also  took,  as 
they  thought,  refuge  in  it.  These  things  gave  rise  to 
grave  suspicions  and  solicitude  in  the  public  mind. 

As  a  safeguard  against  what  it  was  supposed  might 
arise  out  of  this  state  of  things  the  "Ku  Klux  Klan" 
was  organized.  Against  this  organization  the  govern- 
ment adopted  severe  repressive  measures,  and  the 
country  was  filled  with  Deputy  United  States  Mar- 
shals. 

Every  one  who  did  not  fraternize  with  the  Union 
League  was  called  a  "Ku  Klux."  Quiet  good  citizens 
were  arrested  in  the  middle  of  the  night  and  hauled 
before  a  United  States  Commissioner  to  be  tried  for, 
he  knew  not  what.  It  was  a  time  of  great  distress ; 
the  government  had  instituted  a  system  of  spying  upon 
its  citizens,  and  they  were  at  the  tender  mercies  of  the 
worst  men  in  the  country. 

Ammons  had  been  known  as  a  Rebel,  and  he  had  re- 
fused to  join  the  Union  League,  although  solicited  to 
do  so.  He  was  marked  at  once  as  a  Ku  Klux,  and 
every  effort  made  to  criminate  him.  All  he  could  do 
was  to  bear  it,  and  this  he  did  with  a  fortitude  that 
was  wonderful.  The  burden  was  heavy,  but  the  con- 
sciousness of  innocence  supported  him.  At  one  time 
he  was  almost  ready  to  despond,  feeling  that  the  devil 
was  about  to  triumph  over  him,  but  he  committed  his 
cause  to  God  and  went  on  with  his  work.     In  the  end 


62  History  of  French  Broad  Association. 

he  came  out  unscathed,  without  the  smell  of  fire  on  his 
garments. 

After  closing  out  his  work  as  Sunday  School  Mis- 
sionary he  again  took  up  the  work  of  the  pastorate. 
His  first  work  was  at  Little  Ivy,  on  the  very  ground 
where  the  principal  efforts  had  been  made  to  destroy 
him.  This  call  was  peculiarly  gratifying  to  him,  be- 
cause it  proved  to  him  that  the  brethren  had  lost  noth- 
ing of  their  confidence  in  him.  Here  he  labored  three 
years,  and  they  were  years  of  rich  reward ;  the  church 
was  in  a  low  state  when  he  took  charge,  and  in  the 
three  years  the  church  had  become  strong,  its  member- 
ship having  been  increased  by  more  than  eighty  by 
baptism.  He  was  also  called  to  Bull  Creek,  which  he 
served  for  three  years.  This  pastorate,  like  Little  Ivy, 
was  exceedingly  prosperous ;  the  church  was  built  up 
in  numbers  and  built  a  new  house  of  worship  during 
the  time.  About  this  time  he  was  called  to  Marshall, 
which  he  served  several  years. 

About  1 88 1  he  was  invited  by  the  citizens  of  Burns- 
ville  to  preach,  statedly  in  the  village.  He  accepted  the 
invitation,  and  in  thirteen  months  had  succeeded  in 
gathering  a  membership  of  sixteen,  and  had  built  a 
church  house  at  a  cost  of  fourteen  hundred  dollars ;  had 
organized  a  church  and  had  paid  every  dollar  for  the 
church  building.  He  was  pastor  of  this  church  for 
six  years,  in  which  time  it  had  increased  to  twenty- 
seven  members.  During  two  years  of  this  time  he  was 
pastor  at  Cane  River. 

In  1886  he  was  called  to  the  care  of  Good  Hope 
Church  in  Cock  County,  Tenn.  He  served  this  church 
for  three  years,  during  which  time  he  was  called  to 
take  charge  of  French  Broad  Church  in  Jefferson 
County,  Tenn.,  and  also  to  Big  Creek  in  Cock  County. 


History  of  French  Broad  Association.  63 

At  this  time,  1888-91,  he  had  charge  of  French 
Broad,  Good  Hope,  Big  Creek,  and  Marshall  in  N.  C, 
the  work  was  prosperous  in  all  these  churches.  The 
church  at  French  Broad  was  wealthy  and  cultured,  and 
the  mistake  of  his  life  was  that  he  did  not  settle  per- 
manently with  them ;  no  more  tender  relations  ever 
existed  between  pastor  and  people  than  existed  between 
these  churches  and  the  pastor ;  it  was  a  great  grief  to 
part  from  them.  In  1801  he  resigned  all  his  churches 
to  take  charge  and  oversight  of  the  mission  work  of 
the  Western  Baptist  Convention,  as  Corresponding 
Secretary  of  the  Mission  Board. 

This  work  he  carried  to  such  a  degree  of  success  as 
to  astonish  the  most  sanguine ;  the  history  of  the  work 
will  show  that  he  possessed  extraordinary  executive 
ability.  In  the  two  years  of  his  administration  more 
was  accomplished  than  in  any  eight  years  of  its  prior 
existence.  At  the  Convention  at  Asheville  in  1889  the 
Board  reported  received  and  disbursed  for  Conven- 
tional Missions  one  thousand  and  twenty-five  dollars, 
and  six  hundred  of  this  amount  had  been  received  from 
the  Home  Mission  Board  at  Atlanta.  At  the  Conven- 
tion at  Bryson  City  in  1 890  the  Board  reported  as 
raised  and  expended  in  the  Convention's  mission  work 
two  thousand,  six  hundred  and  seventy-eight  dollars, 
six  hundred  of  this  sum  was  from  the  Atlanta  Board. 
We  have  the  contrast  of  two  thousand  and  seventy- 
eight  dollars  against  four  hundred  and  twenty-five  the 
preceding  year. 

Minutes  of  1891,  at  the  Convention  at  Waynesville 
the  Treasurer's  report  showed  that  two  thousand,  four 
hundred  and  twenty-one  dollars  and  fifty-two  cents  for 
Conventional  Missions  had  passed  through  his  hands; 


64  History  of  French  Broad  Association. 

this  was  in  1891.  The  work  of  Foreign  Missions, 
Home  Missions  and  Orphanage  had  made  similar  ad- 
vances.    (See  Minutes  of  1890- 1.) 

The  Convention  met  at  Hendersonville  in  1892,  and 
the  Treasurer's  report  shows  that  for  all  purposes  there 
had  been  collected  during  the  year  two  thousand,  nine 
hundred  and  seventy  dollars  and  seventy-eight  cents; 
everybody  can  draw  their  own  inferences.  (See  Min- 
utes for  1892.)  After  he  retired  from  this  work  he 
preached  for  Flat  Creek  Church  for  one  year.  In  1894 
he  was  prevailed  upon  to  become  a  candidate  for  the 
State  Senate  for  the  33d  Senatorial  District.  He  was 
elected  over  his  opponent  by  a  respectable  majority,  and 
spent  the  winter  of  1895  in  Raleigh,  and  made  for  him- 
self a  good  reputation  as  a  faithful  public  servant. 

In  1897  he  was  called  to  Morgan  Hill  Church,  which 
he  served  for  five  years.  This  pastorate  was  a  wonder- 
ful success,  and  the  church  grew  and  prospered ;  sixty- 
seven  members  were  added  by  baptism  and  quite  a 
number  by  letter.  It's  true  the  devil  made  some  in- 
roads, but  was  foiled  in  his  purpose,  viz,  the  destruc- 
tion of  the  church. 

He  then  served  Grapevine  Church  for  one  year,  and 
Oak  Grove  in  Buncombe,  for  two  years.  In  March, 
1904,  he  was  called  to  Mars  Hill,  which  he  served  for 
two  years.  His  work  had  been  a  success  everywhere, 
as  a  teacher,  as  a  missionary,  as  a  Sunday  school 
worker  and  as  a  pastor;  everywhere  the  work  had 
prospered  under  his  hands,  and  his  work  had  been 
more  widespread  than  any  of  his  cotemporaries.  When 
he  entered  the  ministry  the  Methodists  were  numerous, 
and  had  in  a  large  measure  the  command  of  the  situ- 
ation, and  it  was  a  common  practice  with  Methodist 


History  of  French  Broad  Association.  65 

ministers  to  castigate  the  Baptists  and  tantalize  them 
for  their  narrowness  and  ignorance.  Ammons  took  up 
the  defense  of  the  cause  and  the  result  was  a  number 
of  fierce  contests  over  the  questions  of  the  mode  of 
baptism  and  infant  baptism.  These  controversies  had 
the  effect  to  strengthen  the  Baptist  position  and  the 
Methodists  came  to  treat  the  Baptists  with  more  con- 
sideration. The  Campbellites  made  inroads  into  the 
country,  and  introduced  confusion  and  divisions  in 
some  of  the  churches.  Ammons  incurred  their  dis- 
pleasure by  reason  of  some  remarks  which  he  made 
about  them,  and  they  challenged  him  for  a  discussion. 
After  considerable  correspondence  the  terms  were  ar- 
ranged and  the  debate  came  off  at  Flat  Creek  Baptist 
Church,  and  continued  for  four  days,  six  hours  a  day. 
The  Campbellites  brought  forward  a  strong  man,  a 
good  debater,  and  rallied  all  their  people  in  Western 
North  Carolina  to  give  him  their  moral  support.  There 
were  four  propositions : 

1.  "The  New  Testament  teaches  that  Baptism  is  for 
the  Actual  Remission  of  Sins."  Berry  affirms,  Am- 
mons denies. 

2.  "The  New  Testament  Teaches  that  it  is  the  Duty 
of  Sinners  to  Pray  for  the  Remission  of  Sins,  Separate 
from  and  Apart  from  Baptism."  Ammons  affirms  and 
Berry  denies. 

3.  "The  Christian  (called  Campbellite)  church  is  the 
Church  of  Christ."    Berry  affirms  and  Ammons  denies. 

4.  "The  Missionary  Baptist  Church  is  the  Church  of 
Christ."     Ammons  affirms  and  Berry  denies. 

Ammons  made  the  best  preparation  that  was  pos- 
sible with  the  means  at  his  command,  and  at  the  close 
of  the  debate  it  was  conceded  by  all  who  were  present 
5 


66  History  of  French  Broad  Association. 

that  he  had  won  a  complete  victory.  Campbellism  had 
failed  of  its  purpose,  and  a  quietus  was  given  to  the 
questions  which  had  been  injected  into  the  public  mind 
and  had  operated  as  disturbing  factors.  Campbellism 
has  made  no  show  in  this  country  since. 

About  the  year  1881  there  came  into  the  country  a 
Mr.  J.  N.  Fairchild,  claiming  to  be  a  Baptist  preacher, 
He  was  a  very  pretentious  fellow  and  knew  how  to 
blow  his  own  horn,  he  soon  created  a  following  and 
got  the  care  of  several  churches ;  but  it  was  soon  noised 
abroad  that  he  was  immoral,  a  gambler,  a  drunkard, 
a  lecherous  pest.  Amnions  took  the  matter  in  hand 
and  traced  the  fellow  from  May's  Lick,  Kentucky, 
through  Eastern  Kentucky,  through  East  Tennessee, 
into  Western  N.  C,  and  showed  him  to  be  a  vile  im- 
poster;  drove  him  out  of  the  church  and  delivered  the 
churches  and  the  country  from  a  great  curse,  but  not 
till  he  had  done  an  amount  of  mischief. 

No  man  in  his  day  was  more  devoted  to  his  work 
than  Amnions,  and  he  was  a  leader  in  every  good  work ; 
he  was  sound  to  the  core  and  a  successful  revivalist; 
hundreds  were  converted  under  his  ministry,  and  he 
has  baptized  about  two  thousand  persons. 

He  was  several  years  President  of  the  Western  Bap- 
tist Convention,  and  at  various  times  Moderator  of  the 
French  Broad  Association,  which  position  he  holds 
now,  and  has  for  the  last  four  years. 

He  has  also  been  a  Trustee  of  Mars  Hill  College 
from  its  incorporation,  with  the  exception  of  a  few 
years,  up  till  now ;  in  fact,  he  has  been  actively  associ- 
ated with  the  brethren  in  every  worthy  enterprise,  and 
now,  at  the  age  of  seventy-seven,  though  feeble,  he  is 
still  in  the  work. 


History  of  French  Broad  Association.  67 

Stephen  Wallen  is  the  son  of  Thos.  Wallen,  of  Big 
Laurel,  Madison  County,  N.  C.  He  began  to  preach 
about  1847;  n^s  labors  have  been  principally  in  French 
Broad  Association,  and  mostly  in  his  own  community. 
He  is  a  man  of  excellent  character,  and  did  a  good  work 
among  his  own  people ;  those  who  knew  him  best  loved 
him  most.  He  is  still  living,  having  been  in  the  min- 
istry for  about  sixty  years,  but  during  the  last  ten 
years  he  has  been  laid  aside  by  reason  of  infirmity. 

Ransom  Pinner  came  into  French  Broad  from  Ten- 
nessee. Pinner,  during  his  active  manhood,  was  a 
good  preacher,  but  he  lacked  push ;  he  was  never,  as  a 
preacher,  what  he  might  have  been  had  he  had  more 
self-assertion.  He  did  good  work  as  a  pastor.  He  is 
still  living,  but  doing  no  preaching. 

For  a  number  of  years  he  was  in  the  pastoral  work 
in  Yancey  County,  and  gave  good  satisfaction  to  his 
charges. 

W  .T.  Bradley  was,  for  some  years,  a  minister  in  the 
French  Broad  Association,  having  been  ordained  by 
one  of  its  churches.  Bradley  is  one  of  the  ablest 
preachers  of  his  generation,  and  is  a  good  pastor ;  he 
has  served  many  churches  and  has  succeeded  well  in 
his  work ;  he  has  labored  much  in  revival  work,  and 
has  had  good  success ;  many  have  been  added  to  the 
churches  as  the  fruit  of  his  ministry.  He  is  now  a 
member  of  the  Buncombe  County  Association. 

S.  J.  Morgan  was  ordained  by  Morgan  Hill  Church 
while  it  was  a  member  of  French  Broad.  He  is  a 
grandson  of  Stephen  Morgan,  Sr.,  and  largely  par- 
takes of  the  nature  of  his  grandfather.  For  a  number 
of  years  he  labored  as  pastor  and  as  an  evangelist,  and 
wherever  he  went  he  won  golden  opinions  for  himself. 


68  History  of  French  Broad  Association. 

He  succeeded  well  in  the  pastoral  work,  serving  Little 
Ivy,  Bull  Creek,  Forks  of  Ivy,  North  Fork  of  Ivy, 
Morgan  Hill,  and  perhaps  some  others ;  but  that  for 
which  he  seemed  best  suited  was  revival  work,  in  this 
he  was  eminently  successful,  and  his  labors  were  much 
in  demand.  Morgan  is  a  strong  preacher  and  sound 
to  the  core ;  he  now  belongs  to  the  Buncombe  County 
Association. 

Alfred  Bradley,  a  brother  of  W.  T.  Bradley,  entered 
the  ministry  in  his  mature  manhood  about  the  year 
1880.  He  was  full  of  enthusiasm,  and  soon  developed 
into  a  strong  preacher;  he  has  been  very  successful  in 
revival  work,  and  is  a  good  pastor,  more  a  builder  than 
an  organizer,  yet  his  churches  have  generally  been  in 
line  in  every  department  of  work.  He  is  still  in  the 
work  and  is  pastor  of  three  or  four  churches. 

J.  W.  Anderson  entered  the  ministry  when  about 
forty  years  of  age.  He  had  been  a  man  of  business 
push,  and  at  the  beginning  of  the  Civil  War  had  a  good 
fortune  in  his  hands,  but  as  a  great  portion  of  his  prop- 
erty consisted  in  slaves  the  close  of  the  war  left  him 
broken ;  he  accepted  the  changed  conditions  in  the 
spirit  of  meekness,  and  soon  began  to  preach.  He  was 
better  equipped  for  the  work  than  most  men  of  his 
day,  having  a  very  fair  English  education. 

Anderson  became  a  strong  preacher,  and  for  a  num- 
ber of  years  did  good  work  as  a  pastor ;  he  was  or- 
dained by  Mars  Hill  Church,  and  for  a  number  of  years 
was  its  pastor.  He  was  pastor  at  Bakersville  in 
Mitchell  County,  at  Burnsville  in  Yancey  County,  be- 
ing called  to  succeed  Amnions,  who  had  built  up  the 
church.  He  was  also  pastor  at  Morgan  Hill  and 
Gash's  Creek  in  Buncombe  County.     He  died  at  Ashe- 


History  of  French  Broad  Association.  69 

ville  June  2d,  being  nearly  ninety  years  old.  For  tht 
last  ten  years  he  has  been  too  feeble  to  do  any  work. 
He  is  much  esteemed  for  his  work's  sake. 

T.  M.  Honeycutt  entered  the  ministry  about  1875. 
He  was  the  son  of  Sampson  Honeycutt,  an  old-time 
Baptist  preacher,  a  good  man  and  a  devoted  Christian. 
Young  Honeycutt  had  but  little  education,  but  he  was 
full  of  the  spirit  of  work,  and  he  soon  became  an  able 
and  successful  preacher.  After  serving  for  some  years 
as  pastor  he  was  sent  by  the  Mission  Board  of  the 
Western  Baptist  Convention  as  missionary  to  Ashe  and 
Alleghany  counties.  This  was  a  hard  field,  being  oc- 
cupied by  the  Anti-Mission  Baptists,  and  a  faction 
calling  themselves  "Union  Baptists ;"  these  last  were 
missionary  in  principle,  but  they  mixed  up  their  poli- 
tics and  religion,  so  as  to  hold  every  one  who  had  been 
a  Rebel  or  affiliated  with  rebels  as  transgressors,  and 
they  would  have  no  fellowship  with  them.  In  two  or 
three  years  he  had  succeeded  in  organizing  several 
churches,  and  had  encouraged  and  strengthened  the 
few  feeble  ones  which  he  had  found  on  the  field  till  he 
was  able  to  organize  an  Association — the  Ashe  and 
Alleghany — with  some  seven  churches  and  a  member- 
ship of  several  hundred. 

The  Association  chose  to  go  into  the  State  Conven- 
tion, and  Honeycutt  was  retained  as  missionary  for 
two  or  more  years. 

This  mission  was  a  complete  triumph  of  truth  and 
labor ;  opposition  was  overcome,  the  people  were  at- 
tracted to  the  truth  as  proclaimed  by  the  faithful  mis- 
sionary, souls  were  saved,  God  was  glorified,  so  that 
the  truth  began  to  have  free  course ;  it  was  foundation 
work. 


yo  History  of  French  Broad  Association. 

Having"  resigned  that  work  he  came  to  Mars  Hill, 
and  was  soon  called  to  the  care  of  Mars  Hill  Church. 
He  took  great  interest  in  the  school,  and  cast  the  whole 
weight  of  his  influence  in  its  support ;  it  was  largely 
through  his  labors  that  the  school  was  lifted  up  to  its 
present  level.  The  church  under  his  administration 
ditl  good  work,  and  the  only  thing  which  he  lacked  to 
make  his  pastorate  a  success  was  the  hearty  co-oper- 
ation of  the  brotherhood;  a  Mars  Hill  pastorate  has 
always  been  a  trying  held.  Becoming  discouraged  he 
resigned  from  Mars  Hill  Church,  and  turned  to  another 
held  of  labor;  one  that  would  more  readily  respond  to 
his  efforts,  a  held  of  larger  promise ;  but  about  this 
time  his  health  began  to  fail,  and  after  two  or  three 
years  of  wasting  sickness  and  fearful  suffering  he  de- 
parted to  be  with  Christ,  which  was  far  better. 

Honeycutt  was  a  great  man  because  he  was  a  good 
man.  and  his  memory  lives  in  the  hearts  of  all  who 
knew  him. 

Honeycutt  was  not  a  brilliant  man,  but  he  was  a 
solid  man  ;  he  had  opinions  and  was  free  to  express 
them ;  frank,  open,  sincere,  he  was  ready  for  every 
good  word  and  work.  It  will  be  hard  to  find  the  man 
to  hll  his  place. 

A.  J.  Sprinkle  was  an  orphan  boy,  and  grew  up  to 
manhood  without  any  advantages  for  an  education  or 
social  culture.  Jack,  as  he  was  known,  was  a  rattling 
fellow,  he  loved  mischief  and  reveled  in  rowdying;  he 
was  what  the  boys  called  a  hale,  good  fellow. 

He  learned  to  play  the  hddle,  and  took  pleasure  in 
playing  for  the  old-time  country  dance.  In  some  way 
he  became  convicted  for  sin.  and  it  was  then  that  he 
bewail  to  realize  what  a  dreadful  thins:  sin  was.     After 


History  of  French  Broad  Association.  yi 

a  bitter  struggle  he  came  out  of  the  darkness  into  the 
light,  he  cast  off  the  works  of  darkness  and  put  on  the 
armor  of  light.  Jack  was  converted;  he  joined  the 
church  and  started  out  on  the  new  and  higher  life,  a 
life  of  faith,  of  consecration  and  sacrifice.  Many  said 
it  would  not  last,  but  it  did  last,  and  strengthen  and 
deepen,  and  soon  he  began  to  pray  in  the  prayer-meet- 
ings and  to  exhort  the  ungodly  to  repentance.  Bad 
Jack,  as  he  was  called,  soon  became  a  flaming  evangel- 
ist, and  for  a  number  of  years  has  been  one  of  our 
most  devoted  and  successful  preachers.  He  is  a  man 
of  decision  of  character,  he  has  opinions  and  is  free 
to  express  them ;  he  is  a  successful  revivalist  and  a 
good  pastor.  He  is  now  in  the  vigor  of  manhood,  and 
promises  to  live  long  to  feed  the  lambs  and  the  sheep. 

L.  J.  Baily  came  to  the  French  Broad  from  East 
Tennessee  Association ;  he  is  an  earnest  consecrated 
man  of  God.  He  has  served  a  number  of  churches  as 
pastor  with  great  success ;  while  he  is  not  regarded  as 
an  organizer  yet  he  succeeds  in  keeping  his  people  in 
line  of  work  and  is  much  beloved  by  his  people.  There 
is  no  more  devoted  preacher  in  the  Association  than 
Baily,  and  few  have  exceeded  him  in  usefulness. 

There  are  a  number  of  young  preachers  in  the  body 
that  have  not  had  time  to  show  what  is  in  them.  It 
is  to  be  hoped  that  they  will  prove  to  be  equal  to  the 
demand  of  the  time. 

The  ministry  of  the  Association  is  rather  weak  at 
this  time,  and  especially  deficient  in  numbers.  The 
churches  will  never  reach  that  state  of  efficiency  after 
which  each  ought  to  aspire  till  each  can  have  its  own 
stated  pastor  and  maintain  a  weekly  preaching  service. 

T.  C.  King  came  into  the  French  Broad  Association 


7 2  History  of  French  Broad  Association. 

from  Yancey,  and  has  been  with  us  about  two  years. 
He  is  pastor  at  Laurel  Branch,  Madison  Seminary,  and 
Gabriel's  Creek  churches ;  he  is  a  man  of  considerable 
culture,  and  is  a  good  preacher;  the  work  in  his 
churches  is  in  a  prosperous  condition ;  he  is  well  suited 
to  the  pastoral  work. 

The  Baptist  cause  in  this  country  is  cotemporaneous 
with  the  first  settlements,  and  every  step  of  the  coun- 
try's progress  is  marked  with  Baptist  simplicity  and 
distinguished  by  Baptist  principles.  One  hundred 
years  has  wrought  a  wonderful  change;  the  six 
churches  entering  into  the  organization  contained  all 
the  Baptists  in  a  region  embracing  twelve  thousand 
square  miles,  i.  e.,  all  of  Western  North  Carolina  west 
of  the  Blue  Ridge  and  south  of  Tow  River.  This 
whole  region  was  one  vast  forest,  broken  by  just  a  few 
settlements,  and  in  nearly  all  of  them  was  established 
a  Baptist  church ;  it  was  the  home  of  the  wild  deer,  the 
bear,  the  prowling  wolf  and  the  hunting-ground  of  the 
Indian.  But  all  of  this  is  changed  now,  the  forest  has 
been  cleared  away  and  given  place  to  beautiful  farms, 
comfortable  homes  have  been  built,  towns  have  been 
planted,  the  valleys  have  become  dotted  with  beautiful 
church  houses  and  school  houses,  the  population  has 
increased  from  a  few  hundred  to  thousands  of  busy, 
happy  people.  Religiously  the  change  is  not  so  per- 
ceptible, except  in  facilities  and  material  development. 
The  faith  of  the  fathers  characterized  the  children; 
Christ  was  Lord  of  the  conscience,  the  King  in  Zion; 
allegiance  is  due  to  none  else.  The  religion  of  these 
French  Broad  Baptists  is  simple  New  Testament  re- 
ligion, needing  no  adornment  but  the  adornment  of  a 
g:odlv   life.     The  Association  has  grown,  less  in    area 


History  of  French  Broad  Association.  73 

but  large  in  membership ;  the  territory  which  it  occu- 
pied originally  embraced  about  twelve  thousand  square 
miles,  now  it  embraces  about  eight  hundred ;  then  it 
embraced  about  two  hundred  members,  now  it  em- 
braces twenty-seven  churches,  with  a  membership  of 
twenty-nine  hundred ;  then  there  was  a  church  for 
every  two  thousand  square  miles,  now  there  is  one  for 
every  thirty  square  miles.  The  face  of  society  has 
changed  as  the  face  of  the  country  has  changed,  and 
yet  the  general  character  of  the  people  is  the  same.  The 
country  was  settled  by  a  staid  population  of  Scotch, 
English,  Irish  and  Dutch,  with  the  Anglo-Saxon  pre- 
vailing, and  there  has  come  little  change  in  the  ethno- 
logical conditions.  The  population  is  of  the  same  plain, 
matter-of-fact  common  sense  people  as  of  yore,  and  to 
this  may  be  attributed  the  fact  that  religion  among  its 
people  is  of  the  same  simple,  matter-of-fact  character. 
The  Baptists  of  this  country  have  been  in  the  forefront 
in  every  forward, upward  movement,  or  rather  the  coun- 
try is  what  the  Baptists  have  made  it.  For  more  than 
fifty  years  the  Baptists  of  the  French  Broad  Associa- 
tion have,  in  their  annual  meetings,  been  discussing  and 
keeping  before  the  minds  of  the  people  those  great 
questions  which  underlie  every  step  of  moral  and  re- 
ligious progress — temperance,  education,  Sunday 
schools,  missions,  Home  and  Foreign,  church  building 
— these  are  the  questions  which  have  engaged  the  atten- 
tion and  called  forth  the  energies  of  these  Baptists. 

Mars  Hill  College  was  built  and  fostered  by  the 
French  Broad  Baptists,  and  from  very  small  beginnings 
it  has  arisen  as  a  Baptist  institution  of  learning  to  the 
second  place  in  the  State.  Every  inch  of  the  Asso- 
ciation's territory,  except  the  town  of  Marshall,  is  pro- 


74  History  of  French  Broad  Association. 

hibition  ground,  and  whiskey  goes  out  of  Marshall  in 
1908. 

Our  fathers  worshipped  in  small  log  houses,  or 
under  the  shade  of  the  trees,  now  most  of  our  churches 
have  well-equipped  houses  of  worship,  aggregating  in 
value  twenty  thousand  dollars. 

Marshall  had  a  hard  struggle  for  existence  for  nearly 
fifty  years,  but  under  the  leadership  of  Rev.  M.  A. 
Wood  it  succeeded  in  building  a  beautiful  house  worth 
forty-five  hundred  dollars,  and  has  a  membership  of 
one  hundred  and  fifty-one.  Rev.  J.  W.  Suttle,  an  able 
young  preacher,  is  now  pastor,  and  it  has  weekly  ser- 
vices, the  only  one  in  the  Association  that  has. 

The  country  is  indebted  to  the  churches  for  every 
excellence  which  it  possesses,  but  the  churches  are 
what  the  preachers  made  them.  These  old  men  of 
God  who,  most  of  them,  lie  sleeping  in  its  hills,  made 
the  country  what  it  is  to-day,  and  yet  they  did  it  at 
their  own  expense,  for  they  were  poorly  paid,  if  paid 
at  all.  They  laid  their  lives  on  the  altar,  a  sacrifice  to 
God  for  the  people.  We  shall  not  soon  see  their  like 
again.  Morgan  and  Deweese,  and  Patterson,  and 
Blackwell,  and  Reese,  and  Branson,  and  Sams,  and 
Hooker,  and  Amnions,  and  Keith,  and  Gilbert,  these 
are  names  that  can  not  die.  Great,  not  like  Caesar, 
stained  with  blood,"  but  great  for  the  good  that  they 
have  done  and  the  sacrifices  which  they  have  made. 

The  ministry  of  the  French  Broad  is  at  this  time 
comparatively  weak,  especially  in  numbers.  J.  W.  Sut- 
tle, at  Marshall,  is  a  man  of  fine  culture  and  an  able 
preacher;  he  has  been  identified  with  us  but  a  short 
time.  F.  A.  Clark,  a  professor  at  Mars  Hill,  is  a 
scholarly  man,  he  is  pastor  at  Mars    Hill,  but    being 


History  of  French  Broad  Association.  75 

burdened  with  his  work  in  the  school-room,  he  can  not 
give  to  pastoral  work  the  time  which  its  interest  de- 
mands.    Clark  is  an  able  preacher. 

T.  C.  King  is  pastor  of  several  country  churches, 
preaching  to  each  once  a  month ;  he  is  an  able  and  suc- 
cessful preacher  and  is  much  beloved  by  his  people. 
These  are  the  only  preachers  in  the  body  of  more  than 
ordinary  culture,  and  they  can  not  be  regarded  as  per- 
manently fixed  and  identified  with  us.  What  we  need 
is  a  ministry,  not  only  sound  in  the  faith  (which  may 
be  affirmed  of  our  present  ministry),  but  sufficiently 
cultured  to  be  able  to  lead  and  elevate  their  people  in 
the  world  of  thought ;  and  this  is  the  more  important 
at  this  time  because  of  the  strong  tendency  to  cut  loose 
from  ancient  moorings,  and  to  launch  out  into  new  and 
unexplored  fields  of  thought  and  teaching.  True, 
there  has  not  been  much  unsettling  of  the  faith,  but 
the  waves  of  infidelity  and  error  are  coming  this  way, 
and  may  at  any  time,  like  a  great  tidal  wave,  inundate 
the  whole  country. 

We  want  men,  not  simply  educated  and  cultured, 
but  Christian  men,  trained  and  prepared  to  meet  the 
enemy  on  his  own  ground  and  drive  him  from  his  forti- 
fications by  force  of  truth. 

Mysticism,  Spiritualism,  Christian  Science,  the  Holi- 
ness movement,  the  Higher  Criticism,  the  tendency  to 
Materialism,  the  lofty  demands  of  Science,  the  ten- 
dency to  substitute  Education  for  Conversion  or  Re- 
generation, these  are  the  issues  of  the  day,  and  we  need 
men  to  meet  them,  a  consecrated,  educated  ministry, 
and  this  in  part  we  lack. 

But  we  need  not  be  discouraged,  God  hath  never  left 
Himself  without  a  witness.    He  can  brino-  li^ht  out  of 


y6  History  of  French  Broad  Association. 

darkness  and  make  our  strength  perfect  in  weakness. 
In  times  of  Israel's  calamity  He  raised  up  a  Barak,  a 
Sampson,  a  Gideon,  an  Elijah  to  lead  His  people  to 
triumph  over  their  foes.  The  history  of  the  last  two 
thousand  years  is  an  illustration  of  this  great  truth. 

In  the  course  of  human  events  there  comes  times  of 
depression  and  discouragement,  but  as  in  the  beginning 
the  light  sprang  out  of  darkness,  so  shall  it  be  always, 
because  "Greater  is  He  that  is  in  you  than  he  that  is  in 
the  world ;"  the  truth  shall  triumph,  righteousness  shall 
spring  out  of  the  ground,  and  the  whole  world  shall  be 
filled  with  the  knowledge  of  God  as  the  waters  cover 
the  sea. 

The  Sunday  school  work  in  the  Association  has  been 
pretty  well  organized  since  1870,  but  for  the  last  twenty 
years  there  has  been  a  Sunday  School  Convention 
holding  annual  sessions  and  doing  a  great  amount  of 
work  which  would  not  have  been  thought  of  without  it. 

It  is  in  the  Sunday  school,  and  in  these  Sunday  school 
meetings  that  the  capacity  and  worth  of  our  lay  breth- 
ren are  brought  out  and  utilized ;  little  would  have  been 
known  of  the  capacity  and  worth  of  such  brethren  as 
J.  C.  Sams,  W.  P.  Jervis,  J.  F.  Tilson,  Josiah  Sams, 
L.  J.  Amnions  and  other  brethren  too  numerous  to 
mention,  but  for  the  advantages  and  opportunities  af- 
forded by  the  Sunday  school  work. 

J.  C.  Sams,  W.  P.  "jervis,  J.  F.  Tilson,  S.  O.  Deaver, 
Robert  Wild  and  Sister  Mary  G.  Hudgins  are  worthy 
of  special  mention ;  they  were  leaders  in  the  work  and 
were  especially  devoted  to  it.  The  world  to  come  only 
can  unfold  the  amount  of  good  which  they  have  done. 

In  the  Sunday  School  Convention  the  discussions 
took  a  wider  range  than  the  Sundav  school  work,  but 


History  of  French  Broad  Association.  jj 

the  questions  of  temperance,  mission  and  general 
benevolence  received  a  due  share  of  attention. 

In  the  session  of  1906  there  were  fifteen  schools  rep- 
resented, with  an  enrollment  of  1,044  and  an  average 
attendance  of  782 ;  these  schools  had  paid  for  expenses 
$232,  and  for  support  of  orphan  work  $63.  These 
schools  report  Bible  reading,  fifty-three  thousand,  one 
hundred  and  two  chapters,  and  other  religious  matter, 
twelve  thousand,  four  hundred  and  eighty-four  pages. 

The  Minutes  of  the  Convention  are  combined  and 
published  with  the  Minutes  of  the  Association. 

The  next  session  of  the  Association,  which  will  be 
its  Centennial,  will  be  with  Mars  Hill  Church,  com- 
mencing on  Wednesday,  after  the  fourth  Sunday  in 
August,  1907;  and  the  first  day,  Wednesday,  will  be 
devoted  to  Centennial  exercises  in  which  ex- Senator 
Judge  Jeter  C.  Pritchard  is  expected  to  preside. 


MARS  HILL  COLLEGE. 


Mars  Hill  College  had  its  conception  in  the  mind  of 
Edward  Carter,  of  Madison  County,  N.  C,  about  the 
year  1853. 

Burnsville  Academy  had  been  built  as  a  town  school, 
but  in  putting  the  school  into  operation  the  Methodists 
managed  to  get  control  of  it  and  established  a  Metho- 
dist school. 

Mr.  Carter  and  T.  W.  Ray,  who  had  married  Car- 
ter's sister,  sent  their  children  to  this  school ;  Ray  a 
son  and  daughter,  and  Carter  his  oldest  son,  Melvin. 

During  this  term  a  revival  meeting  was  held  in  con- 
nection with  the  school,  and  the  Ray  and  Carter  chil- 
dren professed  religion.  Mr.  Ray's  children  joined  the 
church,  notwithstanding  the  family  was  Baptistic. 
This  aroused  Carter  to  thoughtfulness  upon  the  sub- 
ject, and  he  soon  reached  the  conclusion  that  if  we  al- 
low other  denominations  to  educate  our  children  that 
by  a  natural  and  moral  sequence  they  will  fall  away 
to  those  who  train  them,  and  that  their  educational 
training  will  be  at  the  expense  of  what  we  hold  and 
believe  to  be  vital  New  Testament  Christianity.  He 
decided,  therefore,  that  we  ought  to  educate  our  own 
children  under  the  influence  of  our  own  religious  con- 
victions and  beliefs ;  and  to  do  this  we  must  build 
schools.  He  unbosomed  himself  to  Rev.  Wm.  Keith, 
who  entered  heartily  into  his  views,  and  at  his  sugges- 
tion Mars  Hill  was  located  where  it  now  stands.  A 
subscription  was  circulated  and  soon  contained  the 
names  which  follow,  each  of  whom  agreed  to  pay  one 


History  of  French  Broad  Association.  79 

hundred  dollars,  viz :  Edward  Carter,  Rev.  Wm. 
Keith,  J.  W.  Anderson,  T.  W.  Ray,  T.  S.  Deaver,  John 
Radford,  Stephen  Amnions,  Rev.  Jesse  Amnions,  Ed- 
ward Carter,  of  Ivy,  G.  D.  Ray,  Berry  Duyck,  Henry 
Edwards  and  Henry  Ray,  of  Yancey  County,  N.  C. 
Smaller  sums  were  secured  till  the  pledges  amounted  to 
about  three  thousand  dollars. 

The  building  was  let  to  contract,  and  was  finished 
in  the  spring  of  1856. 

When  settlement  was  made  with  the  builders  there 
was  found  to  be  a  debt  of  eleven  hundred  dollars,  and 
not  a  cent  in  the  treasury.  The  debt  was  soon  turned 
into  a  judgment  against  the  President  and  Secretary 
of  the  Board  of  Trustees,  T.  W.  Ray  and  J.  W.  Ander- 
son, and  the  Sheriff  of  Buncombe  County  came  and 
levied  on  a  fine  young  negro  named  Joe,  and  carried 
him  to  Asheville  jail  for  safe-keeping  till  the  day  of 
sale ;  it  was  then  that  eleven  of  these  faithful  men  put 
their  heads  together  to  meet  the  crisis.  The  writer 
well  remembers  how  these  men  sat  together  in  the  east 
room  of  the  college,  with  their  faces  in  their  hands, 
conferring  together,  and  agreed  to  share  the  burden 
among  them.  E.  Carter,  T.  W.  Ray,  J.  W.  Anderson, 
J.  C.  Sams,  G.  D.  Ray,  Berry  Duyck,  Stephen  Amnions, 
Rev.  Jesse  Amnions,  T.  S.  Deaver,  E.  Carter,  of  Ivy, 
and  John  Radford,  though  each  of  them  had  paid  one 
hundred  dollars,  assumed  the  responsibility  and  paid 
the  debt  out  of  their  own  pockets ;  a  noble  example  of 
sacrifice  for  the  public  good.  Too  much  credit  can  not 
be  given  those  noble  men,  they  builded  better  than  they 
knew. 

In  September,  1856,  the  school  was  opened  under 
the  control  of  Prof.  W.  A.  G.  Brown,  as  President,  as- 


80  History  of  French  Broad  Association. 

sisted  by  Prof.  P.  W.  Anderson,  both  graduates  of 
Mossy  Creek  Baptist  College,  in  East  Tennessee. 

The  local  patronage  was  very  liberal,  and  there  were 
quite  a  number  of  students  from  abroad.  Among  them 
was  a  young  Mr.  Gains  from  Greenville  District,  S. 
C,  who  was  preparing  for  the  ministry ;  he  was  a  noble 
young  man,  and  all  who  knew  him  loved  him,  but  his 
apparently  brilliant  career  was  cut  short  by  death. 
Another  was  a  young  Mr.  Hooper,  from  Jackson  Co., 
N.  C.j  he  studied  medicine  and  became  an  eminent 
physician ;  he  is  now  in  Newport,  Tenn.,  the  leading 
physician  in  the  place.  President  Brown  remained  till 
the  winter  of  1857-8,  and  was  succeeded  by  Rev.  John 
B.  Marsh,  of  Binghamton,  N.  Y.  President  Marsh 
was  not  a  graduate,  but  he  was  a  fine  scholar,  and  by 
nature  an  educator ;  no  hotch-potch  work  was  done  in 
his  class-room,  no  student  was  permitted  to  pass  a  day 
without  being  put  to  the  test ;  students  did  not  attend 
his  school  and  pass  whole  days,  much  less  weeks,  with- 
out being  questioned  about  their  studies.  Prof.  Marsh 
was  the  best  governor  who  ever  had  control  of  Mars 
Hill.  President  Marsh  had  charge  of  the  school  for 
two  years,  and  left  in  February,  1861. 

The  school,  under  his  management,  was  a  complete 
success ;  the  patronage  increased  and  the  influence  of 
the  school  was  greatly  widened.  There  were  pupils 
from  Tennessee,  Georgia  and  North  Carolina. 

The  Misses  Porter,  Matilda,  and  Harriet,  of  Bun- 
combe County,  the  Misses  Sallie  Champion,  Rachel 
Beam,  Clara  Green,  Nora  Stroud,  of  Cleveland  Co., 
and  Kate  Freeman,  of  Henderson  County,  are  worthy 
of  special  mention.  Of  the  young  men  I  note  Robert 
Freeman,  Rev.  T.  J.  Martin,  who  was  from  Georgia, 
Rev.  Jer.  Clark,  Rev.  Geo.  Wilson. 


History  of  French  Broad  Association.  81 

John  Amnions  was  a  student  of  Prof.  Marsh,  being 
Marsh's  senior  both  in  years  and  in  the  ministry,  but 
he  sat  at  Mr.  Marsh's  feet  and  received  from  him  all 
the  literary  training  he  ever  had,  and  this  after  he  was 
twenty-seven  years  old  and  had  a  wife  and  three  chil- 
dren to  care  for  and  support.  The  oldest  scholar  in 
this  school  was  Rev.  J.  W.  Hooker,  being  about  forty 
years  of  age.  Hooker  was  a  good  student  and  took 
great  delight  in  mental  philosophy  and  logic. 

During  Prof.  Marsh's  incumbency  the  Trustees  had 
constructed  a  very  neat  teacher's  house  of  four  rooms 
capacity,  and  had  under  course  of  construction  a  board- 
ing house  of  sixteen  rooms  capacity,  but  these  were  all 
destroyed  during  the  war,  and  the  college  building  was 
much  damaged,  the  windows  being  broken  out,  the 
seats  burned,  and  the  walls  so  injured  that  they  looked 
like  falling  down  under  their  own  weight.  The  school 
had  been  suspended  during  the  war,  and  at  its  close 
everything  was  in  ruin.  No  effort  was  made  to  put 
the  school  in  operation  till  the  beginning  of  1866,  when 
Rev.  Pinkney  Rollins  took  charge.  Rollins  was  a 
Union  man,  though  he  had  kept  his  views  concealed 
during  the  war,  but  now  that  the  fighting  was  over  he 
boldly  proclaimed  his  views  and  preferences.  The 
Rebels  said  he  was  a  traitor,  a  wolf  in  sheep's  clothing, 
and  most  of  them  refused  to  patronize  him ;  his  school 
was  a  small  affair.  In  April  of  this  year  President 
Rollins  resigned,  and  Rev.  John  Amnions  was  elected 
President  of  the  school.  Ammons  was  not  a  scholar, 
according  to  the  schools,  but  he  was  a  man  of  solid 
learning,  which  he  had  gathered  by  his  own  efforts, 
without  a  teacher,  necessity  being  his  teacher.    He  was 

6 


82  History  of  French  Broad  Association. 

a  fine  grammarian,  the  result  of  research  and  the  read- 
ing of  good  authors ;  he  was  also  a  good  mathematician. 
Adding  to  this  his  tact  for  teaching  and  his  love  for  the 
work  he  made  a  splendid  success.  He  was  a  good 
judge  of  human  nature,  and  made  it  his  study;  no  one 
perhaps  better  understood  how  to  adapt  his  methods 
to  the  capacity  of  his  pupils  than  he;  the  result  was  a 
complete  triumph. 

The  school  was  largely  made  up  of  young  men  that 
had  passed  through  the  war,  some  of  them  Rebels, 
others  Federals ;  and  in  a  few  cases  bitterness  had  been 
engendered  by  reason  of  personal  encounters,  but  he 
took  a  firm  grasp  on  the  situation  and  for  two  years 
managed  and  controlled  the  school  without  any 
trouble.  No  two  years  of  Mars  Hill  has  borne  better 
fruit  than  1866  and  1867. 

The  young  men  attending  the  school  ranged  in  age 
from  sixteen  to  twenty-seven,  and  many  of  them  had 
been  soldiers  in  the  war.  I  note  L.  W.  Peek,  Geo. 
Peek,  Sam.  Peek,  L.  C.  Huff,  John  Pickens,  John 
Jervis,  Straleigh  Ball,  John  Anderson,  J.  M.  Ammons, 
J.  G.  Ammons,  David  Jackson,  Alexander  Lawson, 
Adolphus  Deaver,  E.  W.  Ray,  W.  C.  Ray,  Arsemas 
Carter,  Bascom  Carter,  Lafayette  Clark,  Lafayette  Pen- 
land,  Thos.  Luther,  Lafayette  Luther,  J.  H.  Sams,  J. 
R.  Sams,  J.  F.  Sams  and  Pinkney  King.  These  men 
are  most  of  them  living  and  are  among  the  most  stable 
citizens  and  business  men  in  the  communities  in  which 
they  live. 

J.  G.  Ammons,  of  Macon  County,  entered  the  min- 
istry and  became  a  man  of  note  and  great  usefulness. 
J.  M.  Ammons  and  J.  F.  Sams  both  entered  the  minis- 
try and  made  for  themselves  a  good  reputation.    Thos. 


History  of  French  Broad  Association.  83 

Luther  went  to  California,  where  he  accumulated  a 
splendid  fortune ;  Pinkney  King  went  to  Missouri,  and 
is  now  a  leading  business  man  in  St.  Joseph.  John 
Anderson,  J.  H.  Sams,  J.  R.  Sams,  Arsemas  Carter, 
L.  C.  Huff,  Geo.  Peek,  L.  W.  Peek,  Alexander  Law- 
son  and  Straleigh  Ball  are  with  us  yet  and  need  no 
encomiums  from  me. 

Prof.  W.  P.  Jervis  was  in  school  only  the  first  half 
year;  he  has  made  a  reputation  as  a  teacher  second  to 
none  in  the  country. 

Of  the  girls  that  attended  the  school  during  these 
two  years  honorable  mention  may  be  made  of  Dorcas 
Anderson,  Dora  Anderson,  who  was  then  but  a  girl, 
Narcissus  Radford,  Polly  Radford,  Manerva  Radford, 
Thursday  Radford,  Trissie  Radford,  Marcena  Cole, 
Loretta  Anderson,  Brejetta  Carter,  Lodusky  Carter, 
Sophrona  Deaver,  Matta  Deaver,  Harriet  Deaver,  Mary 
Sams,  Nannie  Sams,  Alletha  Green,  Sue  Green,  Laura 
Clark  and  Rhoda  Amnions.  Some  of  these  have  gone 
whence  they  shall  not  return,  but  without  a  blemish 
on  their  character ;  they  had  adorned  the  stations  which 
they  had  assumed  and  quite  a  number  of  them  stand  at 
the  head  of  the  leading  families  of  the  country. 

I  have  been  thus  particular  in  noting  these  facts  be- 
cause whatever  Mars  Hill  had  been,  prior  to  its  re- 
organization, under  Prof.  Huffham,  has  been  relegated 
to  the  shades  of  perpetual  darkness,  as  if  the  school 
had  just  sprung  into  existence;  whereas,  what  it  had 
accomplished  before  is  of  incomparably  greater  value 
than  what  it  has  accomplished  since.  These  early 
years  were  years  of  difficulties,  of  trials,  of  struggles, 
of  drawbacks  ;  they  were  pioneer  years  in  which  the 
ground  was  cleared  and  the    foundation  laid,    which 


84  History  of  French  Broad  Association. 

made  it  possible  for  those  that  came  after  to  accomplish 
anything  of  note. 

The  work  done  from  1857  to  1868  will  compare 
favorably  with  any  work  that  has  been  done  in  subse- 
quent years.  The  teaching  was  real  teaching,  not  a 
smattering ;  it  was  a  mental  discipline,  not  a  cramming ; 
and  at  the  close  of  each  school  year  the  patrons  were 
called  together  to  witness  the  examinations  of  the 
classes  and  to  see  with  their  own  eyes  what  progress 
their  children  had  made. 

In  January,  1868,  Prof.  Amnions  resigned,  and  was 
succeeded  by  J.  R.  Sams,  one  of  his  school  boys,  in 
connection  with  Prof.  Lewis,  a  scholarly  old  gentle- 
man, who  continued  two  years,  after  which  it  was  con- 
tinued some  time  by  Prof.  Sams  and  J.  B.  Tunsford. 

From  1873  to  1875  there  was  no  school,  and  the 
property  was  used  for  a  branch  of  the  Oxford  Orphan 
Asylum. 

1876-78  Prof.  J.  B.  Lunsford  kept  a  private  school. 

In  1878  the  Trustees  elected  J.  F.  Tilson  as  Presi- 
dent of  the  school,  and  he  had  charge  for  two  years. 
His  school  was  principally  composed  of  the  children 
and  youths  of  the  surrounding  country.  In  1881  there 
was  no  school. 

In  1 88 1  Prof.  W.  P.  Jervis  was  elected  President, 
and  his  administration  continued  till  1888.  During 
this  time  there  was  a  full  attendance  each  term,  not- 
withstanding the  fact  that  Judson  College  was  then  in 
operation  and  was  bidding  for  the  Baptist  patronage 
of  this  whole  country.  The  students  made  good  pro- 
gress in  their  studies,  and  many  of  them  went  forth  to 
the  duties  of  life  without  any  other  school  advantages, 
making  useful  men  and  women.  I  mention  the  fol- 
lowing' : 


History  of  French  Broad  Association.  85 

"George  White,  now  a  prosperous  business  man  in 
some  of  the  Western  States;  J.  K.  Robertson,  John 
Sprinkle,  J.  N.  White,  L.  M.  Sprinkle,  a  leading 
farmer  in  Madison  County ;  L.  A.  Reese,  Dr.  I.  N. 
McLean,  one  of  our  most  prominent  physicians  ;  Chas. 
E.  Jervis,  who  is  one  of  the  ablest  preachers  in  the 
Baptist  denomination  in  this  country ;  C.  N.  Jervis,  now 
dead ;  W.  B.  Duck,  who  became  principal  of  an  institu- 
tion in  East  Tennessee ;  Hon.  Chas.  B.  Mashburn,  Jno. 
W.  Anderson,  A.  L.  Bright,  of  McDowell  County ;  J. 
D.  Carter,  a  member  of  the  present  Board  of  Trustees ; 
Prof.  M.  C.  Buckner,  one  of  our  leading  teachers; 
Prof.  J.  J.  Amnions,  President  of  Macon  High  School. 
Of  the  young  ladies  I  mention  Miss  Sue  Huff,  of  Del 
Reo,  Tenn.,  who  became  a  leading  teacher  in  her 
county;  the  Misses  W.  L.  Runnion,  L.  B.  Ramsay,  C. 
C.  Bruce,  Mary  Buckner,  Mrs.  J.  W.  Anderson  and  T. 
L.  Brown. 

This  list  of  noble  young  men  and  women  is  a  proof 
that  the  labors  of  those  who  had  charge  of  Mars  Hill 
at  this  time  were  not  spent  in  vain,  and  the  world  has 
been  enriched  by  the  lives  of  those  who  went  forth  from 
its  halls.  Annual  addresses  were  delivered  by  Hon. 
John  Stearnes,  Rev.  John  Amnions,  Dr.  Jesse  Wallen, 
Dr.  B.  B.  Whittington,  and  Rev.  J.  W.  Anderson." 

In  1889  there  were  two  schools  running  at  the  same 
time,  one  under  Prof.  Z.  V.  Hunter,  who  had  been 
elected  President  of  the  college,  and  the  other  under 
the  management  of  Miss  Helen  McMasters,  of  Colum- 
bia, S.  C.  Hunter  failed  to  give  satisfaction,  and  after 
one  year  resigned ;  Miss  McMaster  taught  a  good 
school  and  endeared  herself  to  her  pupils  and  won  the 
love  of  all  the  people  in  the  surrounding  country.     In 


86  History  of  French  Broad  Association. 

1890  Prof.  T.  M.  Huff  ham,  a  graduate  of  Wake  Forest 
College,  was  elected  President  of  the  college ;  he  from 
his  better  equipment,  and  because  conditions  demanded 
it,  put  the  school  upon  a  higher  plane.  He  was  aided 
for  a  time  by  Miss  Helen  McMasters,  and  later  by 
John  E.  White,  who  won  the  affection  of  all  his  stu- 
dents. 

I  quote  from  Mars  Hill  College  Quarterly :  "Mr. 
Hufrham  made  a  strong  effort  to  bring  everything  to 
working  under  college  plans.  The  school  grew  in 
standard  of  scholarship  and  in  numbers,  and  for  this 
reason  there  was  a  call  for  more  room  during  his  stay. 

The  money  was  raised  and  a  building  as  large  as  the 
former  was  reared  in  a  short  time.  This  was  the  first 
effort  toward  building  since  the  war.  Huffham  had 
charge  for  three  years,  and  the  school  did  excellent 
work  during  his  incumbency."  He  was  a  teacher  in  the 
truest  sense.  He  gave  his  pupils  plenty  of  work  to  do, 
and  required  them  to  do  it ;  and  woe  unto  the  pupil 
that  failed  to  bring  a  well-prepared  lesson.  He  was 
also  a  good  governor  and  laid  on  birch  plentifully  when 
it  was  needed ;  some  of  the  boys  will  never  forget  Huff- 
ham,  and  yet  all  loved  him.  He  was  followed  by  Prof. 
J.  M.  Cheek,  1893-4,  aided  by  Rev.  J.  H.  Yarborough. 
The  school  under  their  administration  did  very  good 
work,  but  Cheek  was  anxious  to  finish  his  education, 
and  resigned  at  a  time  when  the  school  was  in  a  very 
flourishing  condition,  and  disappointed  the  expectations 
of  the  Trustees  and  all  his  friends.  Prof.  Yarborough 
was  left  in  charge,  but  he  was  not  physically  able  to 
do  the  work  and  therefore  resigned. 

Prof.  C.  P.  Sapp  was  elected  to  succeed  him.  Sapp 
was  a  capable  teacher,  but  he  paid  little  regard  to  re- 


History  of  French  Broad  Association.  87 

ligion  or  morals,  and  continued  but  one  term.  Rev. 
A.  E.  Boothe  was  in  charge  1895-6;  he  was  a  great 
advertiser,  he  knew  how  to  blow  his  own  horn,  and  he 
blew  it — long  and  loud.  He  started  the  project  which 
resulted  in  the  present  girls'  home;  he  also  started  the 
first  paper  ever  run  by  the  school." 

Booth  was  succeeded  by  Prof.  M.  A.  Maury,  who 
was  a  man  of  fine  accomplishments.  As  a  teacher  he 
has  never  been  surpassed  by  any  one  at  Mars  Hill.  He 
remained  but  one  year,  the  school  not  paying  enough 
to  justify  him.  The  close  of  his  work  brings  Mars  Hill 
up  to  the  beginning  of  the  present  administration." 
Mars  Hill  Quarterly,  page  25. 

In  1897  Prof.  R.  L.  Moore  was  elected  President, 
and  has  continued  now  ten  years.  Under  his  wise 
management  the  school  has  grown  and  prospered  till 
the  enrollment  amounts  to  between  three  and  four  hun- 
dred, and  having  drawn  students  from  more  than  thirty 
counties  in  North  Carolina  and  from  the  States  of 
Georgia,  South  Carolina,  Tennessee,  Florida,  Virginia 
and  New  York.  The  work  done  during  these  ten  years 
has  been  excellent,  giving  great  satisfaction  to  both 
pupils  and  patrons,  and  the  school  has  been  widening 
in  its  influence  and  power. 

Rev.  B.  W.  Spillman  visited  the  school  and  became 
very  much  impressed  with  its  possibilities.  God  had 
given  him  and  his  wife  a  little  boy  as  the  light  of  their 
home,  but  He,  for  wise  purposes,  took  the  little  boy 
to  the  heavenly  home,  and  left  the  bereaved  parents  to 
mourn  his  absence  and  their  loss.  He  had  some  prop- 
erty which  he  intended,  no  doubt,  to  spend  upon  the 
child  in  educating  and  fitting  him  for  life,  but  now  that 
he  was  taken  away  he  saw  here  an  opportunity  to  build 


88  History  of  French  Bvoad  Association. 

him  a  name  that  should  live  through,  it  might  be,  a 
thousand  generations.  He  bought  property,  which  was 
but  partially  completed,  bestowed  the  baby  boy's  name 
upon  it  and  gave  it  to  the  school  for  a  girl's  boarding 
school  home — "Raymond  Pollock  Spillman  Home." 

This  property  has  been  enlarged  and  extended  till 
now  it  will  accommodate  more  than  one  hundred  girls 
with  all  the  equipments  of  a  well-furnished  home,  and 
under  the  immediate  care  of  the  teacher  and  his  wife. 
The  old  college  has  been  remodelled,  the  two  lower 
rooms  and  the  hallway  have  been  turned  into  a  chapel, 
and  a  new  college  building  is  near  completion,  which 
will  give  double  space  for  class-rooms  and  school  pur- 
poses ;  also  a  boys'  club  hall  is  being  constructed  which 
will  accommodate  from  seventy-five  to  one  hundred 
pupils.  The  curriculum  of  the  school  has  been  broad- 
ened and  other  departments  have  been  added  till  now 
the  course  of  study  embraces  a  wide  range.  It  had 
been  found  necessary  to  have  a  Primary  and  Intermedi- 
ate Department  for  the  benefit  of  the  surrounding 
country;  but  the  village  has  now  a  first-class  graded 
school  which  will  provide  for  this  contingency,  so  that 
the  college  is  relieved  of  this  burden  which  heretofore 
it  had  to  carry  as  an  encumbrance. 

The  course  of  study  embraces  a  thorough  English 
course,  viz  :  English  Language  and  Literature,  a  Latin 
course,  a  course  in  Greek  Language  and  Literature,  a 
Mathematical  course,  Psychology,  Physiology  and  Hy- 
giene, Composition  and  Punctuation,  and  a  complete 
course  in  History.  The  student  passing  through  the 
course  of  study  at  Mars  Hill  will  be  able  to  enter  any 
of  the  higher  institutions  of  learning,  and  will  be  ad- 
mitted to  Wake  Forest  College  without  examination. 


History  of  French  Broad  Association.  89 

Added  to  the  Literary  course  is  an  Art  Department, 
which  for  some  years  has  been  doing  excellent  work, 
winning  meeds  of  praise  from  visitors,  who  were  ex- 
cellent judges,  at  each  annual  Commencement. 

There  is  also  a  well-equipped  Musical  Department 
where  the  students  receive  instruction  in  that  most  re- 
fining of  arts,  the  expression  of  thought  and  sentiment 
in  song;  this  department  has  contributed  much  to  the 
growth  and  enlargement  of  the  school. 

There  is  also  an  Elocution  Department,  conducted 
by  a  competent  instructor,  where  the  pupils  are  taught 
how  to  express  their  thoughts  in  suitable  verbage.  It 
means  much  to  be  able  to  think  and  to  arrange  thought 
in  a  proper  manner,  but  it  also  means  much  to  be  able 
to  communicate  one's  thoughts  by  the  most  suitable 
words  to  the  minds  and  understanding  of  others  ;  this 
elocution  enables  us  to  do. 

The  college  has  a  loan  fund,  which  is  used  to  aid 
young  men  preparing  for  the  ministry  of  the  gospel. 
This  fund  was  provided  through  the  kindness  of  Mr. 
M.  C.  Treat,  of  Pennsylvania,  who  has  been  Mars  Hill's 
greatest  benefactor.  Mr.  Treat  got  it  in  mind  to  do 
something  in  aid  of  future  generations,  and  as  he 
thought  on  the  matter  he  concluded  that  he  could  ac- 
complish more  by  helping  to  educate  the  rising  min- 
istry than  in  any  other  way.  The  next  thing  to  be 
done  was  to  select  a  school  where  he  might  effect  this 
purpose.  In  some  way  his  mind  was  turned  to  Mars 
Hill,  he  came  and  inspected  the  school  and  being 
pleased  with  the  prospect  he  gave  the  school  two  thou- 
sand dollars  as  a  fund  to  be  used  for  this  purpose. 
About  fifty  young  men  have  received  help  from  this 
fund. 


90  History  of  French  Broad  Association. 

Mras  Hill  is  no  longer  an  experiment,  it  has  passed 
the  crisis  and  is  now  established  on  a  permanent  basis, 
and  gives  promise  of  large  results  in  the  future;  being 
in  the  country,  away  from  the  crowded  city,  it  is  free 
from  those  vices  incident  to  those  places  where  the 
people  are  crowded  together  and  parents  are  relieved 
of  the  solicitude  which  they  would  feel  under  different 
conditions. 

Mars  Hill  is  now  about  equal  to  any  of  our  Southern 
colleges  before  the  Civil  War,  and  while  the  schools 
have  grown  Mars  Hill  has  kept  pace  in  the  race,  and 
promises  at  an  early  day  to  be  able  to  meet  the  largest 
demand  that  can  be  made  on  an  educational  institution 
under  the  grade  of  a  university.  The  work  that  Mars 
Hill  has  done  is  its  own  best  recommendation.  Its 
students  who  have  gone  out  into  the  world  are  filling 
various  stations  in  public  service  with  honor  to  them- 
selves and  satisfaction  to  their  employers ;  the  school 
has  sent  out  young  men  and  young  women  equipped 
for  teaching  in  the  public  schools,  and  many  of  them 
are  engaged  in  this  work  in  this  and  other  States.  Bas- 
com  Huff  is  at  Wilmington,  in  charge  of  a  graded 
school ;  Miss  Bessie  Sams  is  in  charge  of  the  Music 
Department  at  Mars  Hill ;  Miss  Cora  Mashbanks  is 
teacher  in  a  graded  school  at  Edenton ;  Miss  Fuchia 
Marshbanks  is  at  South  Fork  Institute;  Miss  Allie 
Rimer  is  at  Clyde,  N.  C. ;  Mr.  Jeff  Bruce  is  a  pharma- 
cist at  Marshall,  N.  C. ;  Miss  Hattie  Edwards  is  teaching 
in  North  Wilkesboro ;  Edgar  Thorne  taught  a  graded 
school  in  Buncombe  in  1906;  J.  J.  Ammons  resigned 
his  work  at  Franklin,  where  he  had  great  success,  to 
take  charge  of  the  graded  school  at  Morgan  Hill  in 
Buncombe  County ;  Miss  Clara  Huff  is  at  Dothan,  Ala., 


History  of  French  Broad  Association.  91 

as  teacher  in  Art;  Miss  Mamie  Briggs  is  teacher  of 
Latin,  English  and  General  History  at  Broad  Valley 
Institute;  Guy  V.  Roberts  is  practicing  law  at  Mar- 
shall, N.  C. ;  Mr.  Bernard  Ramsay  is  cashier  of  the 
French  Broad  Bank  at  Marshall,  X.  C. ;  Miss  Cornelia 
Bryan  is  in  charge  of  the  Art  Department  at  Mars  Hill ; 
Hon.  Lewis  J.  Baily  is  the  county's  Representative  in 
the  lower  house  of  the  Legislature ;  Dr.  O.  J.  Corpening 
is  practicing  medicine  at  Granite  Falls,  N.  C. ;  Mr.  Sam 
Radford  is  practicing  law  at  Asheville ;  Mr.  Kenneth 
Brown  is  in  the  street  car  service  at  Savannah,  Ga. ; 
Mr.  Henry  K.  Lewis  is  teaching  in  Idaho ;  Mr.  John 
Bradley  is  Principal  of  Bellevue  High  School,  at  Cobbs, 
N.  C. ;  Mr.  Coran  Bland,  one  of  the  brainy  young  men 
who  took  his  course  at  Mars  Hill,  is  making  himself 
a  reputation  teaching  at  Matthews,  X.  C. ;  and  T.  L. 
Johnson  is  Principal  of  Claremont  Graded  School ;  but 
I  cannot  name  each  several  name,  these  are  but  speci- 
mens of  the  whole. 

Of  the  young  ministers  who  attended  Mars  Hill  I 
mention :  Rev.  E.  C.  Andrews  is  pastor  at  Swansboro, 
XT.  C. ;  Rev.  X.  B.  Phillips  is  pastor  at  Rock  Gap,  Va. ; 
Rev.  J.  C.  Havnaer  is  pastor  at  Wallace,  Idaho ;  Rev. 
Jones  Kirk  is  in  charge  of  churches  in  Mecklenburg 
County ;  Rev.  Z.  J.  Edge  has  been  called  to  the  First 
Baptist  Church,  Colfax,  Wash. ;  Rev.  Charles  Davis  is 
teaching  at  Victor,  Ark. ;  and  Rev.  Lester  Reddin  is 
pastor  of  Riverside  Baptist  Church,  Baltimore,  Md. 

It  will  be  seen  from  the  above  that  Mars  Hill  has 
been  largely  supplying  every  department  of  labor  with 
willing  and  well-equipped  workers,  and  is  thus  blessing 
the  world. 

Mars  Hill  is  connected  by  telephone  with  Asheville, 


92  History  of  French  Broad  Association. 

Marshall  and  most  of  the  surrounding  country ;  there 
are  daily  mails  from  Asheville  and  Marshall.  Drinking 
and  kindred  offenses  are  absolutely  forbidden,  and 
every  effort  is  made  to  induce  those  who  have  formed 
the  habit  of  using  tobacco  in  any  form  to  give  it  up. 
The  town  authorities  co-operate  with  the  school  Trus- 
tees in  keeping  intoxicants  from  our  borders,  so  that 
no  community  is  freer  from  temptation  to  drink.  Mars 
Hill  Quarterly,  June,  1907,  page  35. 

THE  RAYMOND  POLLOCK  SPILLMAN  HOME 
FOR  GIRLS  AND  YOUNG  WOMEN. 

"The  building  is  only  a  few  steps  from  the  college 
buildings.  It  was  given  to  the  school  that  our  young 
women  might  have  the  wholesome  and  refining  influ- 
ence of  a  home — not  a  boarding  house,  not  a  club — but 
a  real  home-like  Christian  home.  During  the  last  ses- 
sion the  number  of  those  in  the  Home  practically 
reached  the  limit  of  its  capacity,  eighty-nine  coming 
under  its  influence. 

The  Home  is  run  on  the  co-operative  plan,  every 
girl  doing  one  hour's  work  each  day,  for  two  reasons : 
One,  that  it  creates  a  home-like  feeling  and  establishes 
a  genuine  fellowship  to  have  some  duties  in  common 
to  perform  each  day ;  another,  that  the  rates  are  thereby 
made  lower,  thus  placing  its  advantages  within  the 
reach  of  those  who  otherwise  could  not  come ;  besides 
it  gives  useful  training."    Catalogue  1907,  page  26. 

THE  TREAT  DORMITORY  FOR  BOYS. 

This  building  was  secured  through  the  kindness  of 
Mr.  M.  C.  Treat,  of  Pennsylvania,  who  first  suggested 
it  and  gave  one  thousand  dollars  towards  its  construe- 


History  of  French  Broad  Association.  93 

tion.  It  will  afford  room  for  fifty  students,  besides 
reception-room,  kitchen  and  dining-room.  It  will  be 
heated  by  furnace. 

THE  TREAT  LOAN  FUND  FOR  MINISTERS. 

Through  the  liberality  of  Mr.  M.  C.  Treat  a  loan 
fund  of  some  four  thousand  dollars  has  been  estab- 
lished to  assist  young  men  preparing  for  the  work  of 
the  ministry.  About  fifty  young  men  have  already  re- 
ceived help  from  this  fund,  and  quite  a  number  are  al- 
ready doing  splendid  work  in  various  parts  of  the 
United  States,  viz :  Edge,  in  Washington ;  Havnaer, 
in  Idaho ;  Phillips,  in  Virginia ;  and  Reddin,  at  Balti- 
more, Md. 

COLLEGE  BUILDINGS. 

These  consist  of  the  original  building,  erected  in 
1855,  being  60x30  feet,  two  stories  high;  a  second 
building  of  like  dimensions  was  erected  in  1890.  The 
new  college  building,  with  a  seating  capacity  of  800, 
containing  five  recitation  and  practice  rooms,  will  soon 
be  completed,  and  costing  $4,500 ;  and  to  these  is  soon 
to  be  added  a  larger  building,  at  an  estimated  cost  of 
six  thousand  dollars.  The  fund  for  the  erection  of  this 
building  has  already  been  raised. 

LITERARY  SOCIETIES. 

"The  first  Literary  Society  was  organized  in  1858, 
with  Rev.  John  Amnions,  Maj.  W.  W.  Rollins,  Rev. 
J.  W.  Hooker,  Capt.  M.  E.  Carter,  Emerson  Carter, 
Rev.  Pinkney  Rollins,  R.  F.  Whitesides,  Rev.  T.  J. 
Martin,  Capt.  William  Keith,  and  others  as  charter 
members. 

A  constitution  and  by-laws  were  prepared,  requiring 


94  History  of  French  Broad  Association. 

quarterly  dues,  and  imposing  fines  for  disorderly  con- 
duct, etc.  Rev.  Pinkney  Rollins  was  chosen  the  first 
President,  and  Rev.  John  Amnions  first  Critic. 

The  society  was  first  known  as  Philomathean  Liter- 
ary Society,  and  the  boys  of  '58  and  '60  were  proud 
of  the  name  and  strove  to  reflect  honor  on  the  society 
which  they  represented."  Miss  Media  Peek,  in  Mars 
Hill  Quarterly,  June,  1907,  page  25. 

This  society  was  not  simply  a  debating  club,  but  a 
training  school ;  its  meetings  being  conducted  with  the 
utmost  decorum. 

Questions  of  vital  interest  were  discussed  in  the 
weekly  meetings,  and  many  a  bout  at  dialectics  took 
place  during  these  two  years;  most  of  the  young  men 
in  the  school  were  members  of  the  society,  and  derived 
much  benefit  from  it.  During  the  war  the  society  fell 
to  pieces,  but  was  re-organized  in  1866,  during  the  ad- 
ministration of  President  Amnions,  who  took  great 
pains  to  encourage  the  society  in  its  work. 

About  1869  the  society  was  divided  and  the  old 
society  changed  it's  name  to  Mars  Hill  Literary  Society, 
and  the  new  society  took  the  name  of  Columbian  Liter- 
ary Society ;  but  this  society  was  soon  absorbed  by  the 
Mars  Hill  Society. 

"In  1878  the  society  work  passed  into  the  hands  of 
W.  P.  Jervis,  J.  R.  Sams,  Rev.  W.  T.  Bradley,  Judge 
J.  C.  Pritchard,  J.  F.  Tilson,  Dr.  C.  N.  Willis,  Dr.  W. 
F.  Woodward  and  others."  Mars  Hill  Quarterly,  June, 
1907,  page  26. 

"These  were  splendid  specimens  of  young  American 
manhood ;  they  here  took  some  of  their  first  lessons  in 
the  development  of  the  latent  forces  within  them  which 
was  to  expand  into  greatness. 


History  of  French  Broad  Association.  95 

The  influence  of  this  work  has  been  felt  from  the 
lowliest  hut  of  the  Carolina  mountains  to  the  Senatorial 
halls  at  Washington ;  but  it  stops  not  here,  it  is  wafted 
on  till  it  reaches  the  stormy  coast  of  the  Atlantic,  and 
then,  as  if  by  some  magic  power,  the  influence  of  our 
members  floats  back  across  the  continent. 

"In  1881  the  following  workers  appeared  on  the 
field:  Rev.  C.  E.  Jervis,  C.  N.  Jervis,  Dr.  E.  D.  Peek, 
James  A.  Ramsay,  Dr.  L.  N.  McLean,  Chas.  Mash- 
burn,  A.  W.  Arrowood,  W.  B.  Duck,  B.  L.  Sams,  A. 
F.  Sams,  L.  A.  Briggs,  Clifford  Wallen,  J.  Judson 
Amnions,  and  others. 

The  boys  of  '81  were  not  second  to  any  in  purity  of 
character  and  nobility  of  soul ;  they  justly  merited  the 
reputation  they  bore  of  being  the  best  historians  and 
ablest  debaters  in  the  country."  Mars  Hill  Quarterly, 
March,  1907,  page  27. 

The  society  up  to  this  time  was  very  poorly  supplied 
with  literature,  having  no  library. 

In  1890  the  society's  work  was  re-organized  and 
three  new  societies  were  organized."  There  are  now 
four,  two  for  young  men — Euthalean  and  Philoma- 
thean,  and  two  for  young  women — Clio  and  Nonpareil. 
That  a  high  grade  of  work  is  done  in  them  all  is  proved 
by  our  Commencement  exercises  and  by  the  excellent 
standing  of  our  students  at  higher  institutions.  The 
society  halls  are  provided  with  desks,  chairs,  lamps, 
tables,  and  other  furnishings.  Each  hall  has  the 
nucleus  of  a  select  library  of  reference  books  and  gen- 
eral literature,  all  secured  through  the  tireless  efforts 
of  the  members  of  the  societies.  The  annual  debates 
and  entertainments  are  delightful  and  often  come  up  to 
similar  exercises  of  Commencement. 


96  History  of  French  Broad  Association. 

The  societies  select  representatives  for  the  closing 
exercises  in  debate,  recitation,  declamation,  and  oration, 
but  these  representatives  must  be  approved  by  the 
Faculty  before  they  are  put  on  the  program."  Cata- 
logue io,07,*»page  29. 

The  progress  of  the  school's  work  is  very  clearly  in- 
dicated by  the  annual  Commencement  exercises,  each 
succeeding  being  an  improvement  on  the  preceding. 
The  last  Commencement  showed,  in  a  marked  degree, 
the  breadth  and  scope  of  the  work  and  the  excellence 
of  its  character. 

The  present  faculty  consists  of  R.  L.  Moore,  Presi- 
dent and  Prof.  Mathematics ;  Rev.  F.  A.  Clark,  Latin, 
Bible ;  Miss  Phcebe  W.  Fuller,  English,  Science ;  Miss 
Cornelia  Bryan,  Art;  Miss  Bessie  Sams,  Music;  Miss 
Susan  B.  White,  Elocution ;  Miss  Mary  Harper,  Sten- 
ography; Mrs.  R.  L.  Moore,  Matron  Girls'  Home. 

Prof.  Clark  is  a  scholarly  man  and  a  fine  teacher, 
and  fully  consecrated  to  his  work. 

Mars  Hill  is  now  fifty  years  old,  and  it  is  rather 
wonderful  to  contemplate  the  change  that  has  come 
over  the  country ;  the  whole  country  has  kept  pace  with 
the  college  in  material  improvements.  Fifty  years  ago 
there  was  hardly  a  frame  house  in  all  the  country,  now 
the  valleys  are  dotted  with  beautiful  country  homes,  the 
abodes  of  happiness  and  intelligence,  and  contentment, 
and  Mars  Hill  has  largely  contributed  to  this  improved 
state  of  things. 


